Are you in, or out?
by arealfishoutofwater
Summary: Percy and Annabeth have to find out whose spying on them at camp, and there's only one way to do that. But Percy's been having a weird dream. What does it mean? Rated for action,character death,and occasional use of mild language. Rotates POV's. Percabeth
1. The dream

**Are you in, or out?**

**This is my first Fan Fic so any reviews on anything would do me good, if you don't like it constructive criticism would be nice, but if you flame me I'll spam every single one of your stories. (Just joking, although no flames would be nice!) I also don't know a whole lot about New York, because I live in Maine and prefer the country. It takes place between **_**The Battle of the Labyrinth **_**and **_**The Last Olympian**_ **(and instead of The Last Olympian too. You'll see.) I started writing this five days before **_**The Last Olympian**_** came out, so there may be some confusion Authors notes will look like this, (A/N: Message here.) because it can get confusing later on. Lastly I may be putting some WWE references in this Fan fic so start watching Raw and Smack Down.**

**Disclaimer: Why the hell would I be sitting here writing fan fics if I owned PJO?**

**What Just Happened?**

**Percy POV**

My dream started like this.

**Dream Start**

_I was in a dark cave, I could see the opening about ten feet away. But I didn't feel the need to leave. The rain was coming down hard and for some reason I had tears coming down my cheeks. The night sky was clouded, and it looked like one of those scenes in the movies where the main character finds out something horrible. Then I turned around and realized why. Laying down out front of me covered in cuts, bruises and blood was an unconscious (or was she just sleeping?) Annabeth. Once I'd noticed her I felt really weird, like, I wasn't myself, and extremely embarrassed_, _I didn't know why, I'd never felt this way around her. Blood was caked in her blond hair and her left forearm looked broken in the center, her clothes were in tatters, it looked like she'd been in a long fight with a chain saw wielding lumberjack. She was laying on her stomach like she'd been dragged by someone who either was dying, or so tired they couldn't pick her up or flip her over. Then the ground gave way and I started falling, and I yelled "Annabeth!" But the scene had changed. I was standing out front of a pit the size of a city block. The entire cavern was pitch black and I could barley see anything. Tartarus. Then the icy voice of Kronos spoke in my head, "Confusing isn't it my little hero? Don't you know I have more control over you than you realize?_

**Dream End**

I sat up so fast I felt my brain hit my forehead. What just happened?


	2. Acting Weird

**Acting Weird**

**Percy POV**

I couldn't fall back asleep so I checked the clock. It read 3:47. Since I'd been hit with insomnia I crawled out of bed, reached under it and grabbed a six pack of Coke and a beach blanket. Then I pulled a shirt and a pair of pants on and headed off to the beach. On the way I passed by the Athena cabin and my thoughts wandered to Annabeth, then the dream. Was it real? And if it was…What did Kronos mean when he said he had more control than I realize? I was thinking so hard I didn't realize I was at the beach until half the fish started yelling "Hello Lord!"

"Hi" I said as I spread the blanket over the sand, then I laid down. The sea always calms me, and helps me think clearly, but today instead of staring at it and trying to forget, I thought more about the dream. Wait…more accurately the way I felt in the dream. I didn't know why I felt like that…it scared me a little. I had no idea why, but I, Percy Jackson, last hope of the gods, who'd slayed monsters that would make Ares's kid crap their pants and run, taken on a quest to the Underworld where few would go and fewer would come out, was (a little) scared of the feelings in a dream. Go ahead, laugh it up. While I was thinking time passed quickly and when I looked at my watch it read 7:53, only a few minutes until breakfast. I'd gone through four cans of coke, and I was feeling a little twitchy. So I ran to my cabin and stashed my blanket and Coke. Then I jumped in my bed and pretended to sleep. When my watch alarm went off at 8:00 I jumped out of bed and walked out the door pretend yawning to make it look like I just woke up. I saw Annabeth wearing jeans and a camp shirt, leading her cabin to breakfast and tried to catch her eye but she had already turned and was heading up the hill. It's mid October, we'd decided to stay at camp and train because, as Annabeth put it, "If the war really will start a year from now, knowing how to multiply and divide fractions by their equal and isolated denominators wont help us very much."

Anyway, I started jogging up to the Poseidon table where a small feast of Bacon, eggs, hash browns, apples, oranges, bananas, cereal, pancakes and waffles were laid out. I took a few waffles put some butter and syrup on them grabbed some bacon and eggs and headed up to the fire, I threw in some bacon and said "Poseidon," then I dropped my voice and whispered "Please help me figure out my dream." Then headed up to my table again. When I got there Grover was sitting at the table chewing on a banana and looking sympathetically at the bacon and eggs as if he knew the Pig and unborn chicks. I'd learned a long time ago not to ask him to eat meat. He'd just get mad.

"What's up G-man?

"Not much, what about you?"

I considered telling him but at the last second decided it'd be too embarrassing.

"Nothing—Well apart from the usual."

"Are you okay? You look a little…worried"

"I'm fine." I said

"You sure? You know, I _can_ read your emotions."

"I'M FINE!" I yelled. Gods, why did he have to keep pestering me about it?

"Aright, don't yell." he said calmly

He looked like he wanted to say more but just then a Hermes kid, grumbling allot about being forced to send messages held out a folded Piece of paper and said "Here, It's from Chiron."

"Uh…Thanks" I said as I took the note and he stormed off. The front of the note said Percy only, so even though Grover wanted to see it I held the satyr back and Opened the note that was written in Ancient Greek:

Percy,

I have sent a similar note to Annabeth, please meet me on the porch of the big house after breakfast. I have a beginner archers lesson at 9:30 so please hurry as it is sure to take some explaining.

–Chiron

I looked up at Annabeth who'd just finished her note and made eye contact, a silent message passed between us. Whatever Chiron wanted to talk to us about, it was important, and we had to go.

**Annabeth POV**

Breakfast was the same as normal, or, as normal as breakfast can be when your a half blood. My half-sisters were arguing over some Apollo camper and one of my half-brothers was trying to stop it. I'd noticed something different though, when I watched Percy go up to the fire, and I'm not saying I _watched _him I just saw him! He'd stayed at the fire a few seconds longer than he usually did. Which would mean he was praying, but why? Then when he went by my table I said hi, but he didn't say hi back, which would mean either he was angry with me, or thinking about something. Then I heard him yell, …which he almost never does, especially at Grover. Why was Percy being so distant? I didn't have much time to think about it though because an angry Hermes camper handed me a folded piece of paper with 'Annabeth only' written in Chiron's handwriting. I opened the note and read the Ancient Greek:

Annabeth,

I have sent a similar note to Percy, please meet me on the porch of the big house after breakfast. I have a beginner archers lesson at 9:30 so please hurry as it is sure to take some explaining.

–Chiron

I looked up at Percy who'd just finished his note and made eye contact, I almost got lost in his sea green eyes, but I shook myself out of it and a silent message passed between us. Whatever Chiron wanted to talk to us about, it was important, and we had to go. I watched and suppressed a laugh as Percy gulped down his breakfast so fast he didn't realize he'd eaten all of it. But even with 'what the Hades?' expression on his face when he was looking at his plate he still seemed out of it, like…like he had allot on his mind. _I'll talk to him about it later_. I decided and turned my attention to my pancakes.

After I was done eating a few minutes later, I nodded at Percy who was looking at me with his 'I'm thinking real hard' face. Wait, was he staring at me the whole time I was eating? I felt so embarrassed, but…a little part of me liked it. I could feel myself blushing a little. I got up and so did he then we started walking toward the big house. But after we were out of earshot of the pavilion he turned his head to me and said "Annabeth, do people that aren't Apollo's kids sometimes get prophecy dreams?"

I thought about it for a minute then said "It's not so much rare, as it is not many."

"Gee thanks for clearing that up. Can't I ever get a strait answer from you?"

It hurt me a little, the way he said it, but I didn't let it show. "Percy, maybe, like eight out of fifty people can. I know you're one of them."

"I am?"

"Yes Seaweed Brain, you are. Remember our first quest? You kept having dreams about the present, or the not-so-distant future."

"That makes me one?"

"Well either that or it was a stroke of extremely good luck, like, unheard of good."

"Oh…"

He was quiet after that and I could tell he was thinking pretty hard. We were climbing up the stairs to the porch now we walked over to the chairs and sat down. After a few minutes of waiting to hear him open up, I decided to ask him. "Percy?"

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing" he growled "Nothing is wrong okay? Now please, be quiet."

I felt a little sad my best friend wouldn't tell me what was wrong, but I guess it's a guy thing. A few minutes more of silence followed, and I saw Percy's face get tough like he had just decided something. A few more minutes later Chiron climbed up the stairs and said "I've got a quest for you two."


	3. You want us to WHAT

**You want us to WHAT!**

**Percy POV**

"Percy?" Annabeth asked

"Huh?" I said coming out of the deepest thoughts of my mind

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing" I growled "Nothing is wrong okay? Now please, be quiet." I couldn't believe this, nobody would just let me think. I didn't mean to be rude to her but I wasn't in the best of moods. If only people would just get it and leave me alone. _Alright, now what have I learned? _I asked myself _I've learned that I can get dream Prophecies. But…so does that mean…does it mean it'll…happen? No…no I can't let it happen…Annabeth looked…almost dead. But…but, will it? Can it…NO…no, I'm NOT going to let her get…get injured…especially…especially that bad! I'll protect her…Annabeth will remain safe…and that dream will never…NEVER, EVER, HAPPEN!_

Then Chiron climbed up the stairs and said "I've got a quest for you two."

"What is it?" Annabeth said, almost eagerly

"Well," he said "Lord Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena along with me believe Kronos has spies at camp, so naturally we want to know who they are. But the catch is we can't just torture random campers and ancient laws prevent them from asking a mind reader to tell them so." he gulped "They want to send you undercover to 'join' Kronos and find out, while feeding us vital details."

"You want us to WHAT!" I yelled "That's a suicide mission! Kronos knows who we are! Once we arrive on his doorstep he won't ask! He'll Kill us!"

"You don't know that Percy! Stop _wanting_ Luke to be evil!" Yelled Annabeth

"You SAW him become KRONOS! THERE'S NO LUKE LEFT!"

"BUT WHEN _SHE_ HIT HIM W–"

"HE WASN'T SETTLED IN HIS NEW BODY YET!"

"Stop yelling! Both of you!" Chiron said

"BU-" Annabeth started

"Enough!" Chiron said

He waited a minute for us to calm down

"Now, do you accept the quest?"

I looked at Annabeth. Praying she wouldn't.

"Yes!" she said

Stupid! Stupid! She didn't even THINK about it!

"Will you Percy?"

Annabeth looked like she would cry if I didn't. All of a sudden I felt extremely protective. Like a wolf and his territory. Nobody was going to hurt her without going through me! Period.

"I still don't like it," Annabeth's eyes were shining "but I can tell your going anyway and your going to need some help," She stopped looking sad "and so, I, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon accept this quest." Her face could have lit the entire earth, I love it when she smiles like that.

"But…wait Percy had a point when he said they'd recognize us." Annabeth said

"That's why we're going to disguise you." said Chiron

"As who?" I said

"Whoever you want to be." Chiron said

**Annabeth POV**

"You want us to WHAT!" yelled Percy. He got a little scary when he was like this sometimes. "That's a suicide mission! Kronos knows who we are! Once we arrive on his doorstep he won't ask! He'll Kill us!"

_Wait, Luke wouldn't kill us, he's our friend!_

"You don't know that Percy! Stop _wanting_ Luke to be evil!" I yelled

"You SAW him become KRONOS! THERE'S NO LUKE LEFT!"

"BUT WHEN _SHE_ HIT HIM W–"

"HE WASN'T SETTLED IN HIS NEW BODY YET!"

"Stop yelling! Both of you!" Chiron said

"BU-" I started

"Enough!" Chiron said

He waited a minute for us to calm down

"Now, do you accept the quest?"

Percy looked at me 'Please don't do it' was written all over his face, but I need to save Luke! "Yes." I said

"Will you Percy?"

I really hoped he would. I couldn't bear it if he didn't. I need him along, I'll need help…if my best friend didn't want to go…

"I still don't like it,"

_Oh no…he's really not going too…I…I…I can't believe he'd just abandon me like this…no…NO…I can't cry…I won't…_

"but I can tell your going anyway and your going to need some help,"

_Wait, what does that mean…Is he coming?_

"and so, I, Percy Jackson son of Poseidon accept this quest."

_I can't believe it! Yes! He's coming! Thank the gods! YES! _Then I realized something.

"But…wait Percy had a point when he said they'd recognize us." I said

"That's why we're going to disguise you." said Chiron

"As who?" said Percy

"Whoever you want to be." Chiron said

"What do you mean by that?" I said

"Make up the people you want to be. Then get into character. Dye your hair, contact lenses, get a hair cut, buy new clothes, walk a little differently. That kind of thing."

"Oh, okay, I say we put all this down on paper and trade Percy, so we can know each other too." I said

"Good idea wise girl."

I blushed a little, wait. I never blush when he compliments me. So why now? He rarely compliments me and (although I'd _never_ tell him) I heard him admit to me I was smarter than him when he thought I was sleeping on the back of the hippocampus when we were thirteen.

"Thanks Seaweed Brain," I said then I scribbled down something on a sheet of paper then put the same thing on another.

"Fill this out up until backstory, and we can't be the same age! I'll be fourteen. why don't you stay fifteen okay?"

"Alright, if your sure…" he sighed

"Good." I said

Then I turned toward my paper and filled it out. That's the thing about half-bloods. we can't read that well but we can still write fine…at least…in Ancient Greek.

Name: Amy Johnson

Sex: F

Hair: Black

Eyes: Gray

age:14

Daughter/son of: Athena (gray eyes)

Differences in normal appearance: Black hair, knows little about Ancient greek taught by 'Percy'

Personality: Rough and Tough

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite food: olives

Dresses: casual/tough

Dislikes: Spiders, being called stupid

Scared of: Spiders

Backstory:

"Are you done?" I asked

"Ya, what are we doing for a backstory?" he said

"Well, I was thinking, your a runaway from camp off to join Kronos and I don't know I'm a half-blood because you stumbled across me because I ran away from my orphanage, and you taught me everything you knew and identified my mom and 'taught me' to hate the gods."

"You thought that all up in less than a minute?" he said

Then we updated our lists and traded and read eachothers.

Name: Mike Smith

Sex: M

Hair: Dirty blond

Eyes: Green (took after Mom)

Age:15

Daughter/son of: Hermes

Differences in appearance: Blond hair, holds eyes like a cocky person

Personality: Believes he can fight the entire world and win/normal

Favorite color: Red

Favorite food: Pepperoni Pizza

Dresses: casual

Dislikes: know-it-alls, jerks

Scared of: Dying

Backstory: Ran away from camp to join Titans, met up with homeless girl, taught her about Ancient Greece, and some Ancient greek.

He made a great false ID I thought. Then I thought of something else.

"Chiron, whose leading the quest?" I said

"You both are." he said

"But…whose going to see the Oracle?"

"Both of you, now hurry we have ten minutes to get you ready because you leave tomorrow."

We got up and headed to the attic. When we got there Percy helped me through the attic's ceiling door, and I blushed at his attempt at chivalry.

Once Percy was up we walked to the Oracle which began to billow green smoke.

"_I am the Oracle of Delphi Speaker of the Prophecies of Apollo, approach seekers and ask."_

I started to get a little scared and sized Percy's hand which made me immediately feel better but I'd swear I saw him blush.

"Oracle, what is our destiny" I heard Percy say

The entire attic changed. We were in a city Park and Chiron, Mr. D, my dad, Percy's mom, My step-mom, and Mr. Blofis were eating sandwiches at a picnic table. Mrs. Jackson turned and stared at us. Then she said in the voice of the Oracle.

"_Two shall go west to the screaming boat,"_

Then my dad turned and said

"_On the way they'll have trouble staying afloat,"_

Mr. Blofis said

"_What they will learn will cost more than a scrape,"_

My step-mom turned and said

"_Three shall attempt but two shall escape,"_

Mr. D said

"_Gain possession of a weapon of which no man can own,"_

Then Chiron delivered the most confusing news.

"_And both shall realize what others have known."_

Then the fog dropped and the Oracle lay still, our audience was over.

**Percy POV**

"Chiron, who's leading the quest?" Annabeth said

"You both are." he said

"But…whose going to see the Oracle?"

"Both of you, now hurry we have ten minutes to get you ready because you leave tomorrow."

We got up to the attic and I help Annabeth up through the hatch, I pretended not to notice but I saw her blush. I wondered why she was blushing. She was waiting for me when I pulled myself to the top. Then we walked over to the hippie mummy which began to billow green smoke.

"_I am the Oracle of Delphi Speaker of the Prophecies of Apollo, approach seekers and ask."_

I remembered my last visit, I'd had nightmares for months from it. But for some reason I wasn't scared now. Then Annabeth grabbed my hand. _Whoa,_ I thought, as I tried to hide the redness that I knew was crawling over my face. I took a deep breath, and praying I wouldn't stutter because she was holding my hand, I asked the Oracle.

"Oracle, what is our destiny" I said

The entire attic changed. We were in a city Park and Chiron, Mr. D, Annabeth's dad, my mom, Annabeth's step-mom, and Mr. Blofis were eating sandwiches at a picnic table. Mom turned and stared at us. Then she said in the voice of the Oracle.

"_Two shall go west to the screaming boat,"_

Then Annabeth's dad turned and said

"_On the way they'll have trouble staying afloat,"_

Mr. Blofis said

"_What they will learn will cost more than a scrape,"_

Annabeth's step-mom turned and said

"_Three will attempt but two shall escape,"_

Mr. D then said

"_Gain possession of a weapon of which no man can own,"_

Then Chiron delivered the final, but most confusing news.

"_And both shall realize what others have known."_

Then the mist cleared and the Oracle lay there just like always, and I knew we'd learn nothing more._ Wait, what? Why would the Oracle send us on a quest to learn something we already know? _

"Did you understand a word of that?" I asked Annabeth

"Some of it…what did she mean '_On the way they'll have trouble staying afloat'_?"

"Well…I was thinking…traveling over land would take too long and…maybe we could have one of Hephestus's kids…build us a ship…" I said a little embarrassed.

"Percy…a few minutes ago I wouldn't have minded that idea, now…wait, where were you going to put the ship anyway? Were you just going to park it next to _The Princess Andromeda_?"

"Very funny." I said sarcastically

"C'mon Seaweed Brain let's go, we need to get ready."

Then we headed back to talk to Chiron about preparations.


	4. We need a ship

**We need a ship**

**Percy POV**

"Chiron, do you think we could take a ship to San Francisco?" I asked

"Percy! You heard what the Oracle said! We can't take a ship!" Annabeth said

"The Oracle said we'd have _trouble_ staying afloat! She never said we'd sink! Besides it'll get us there faster, and even if it does sink we'll be fine, and you can rub it in my face!"

"Oh fine Percy! But if we sink I'll never let you live it down!" She said, and I knew she meant it.

"Good. So, can we Chiron?"

"It seems like a solid enough plan, but make sure you have only _one_ person build it, someone you trust, and don't tell them why you need it. They can work through curfew though so they should have it done before everyone wakes up." He said

"Alright sir." I said

"Good, Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lesson to teach."

And with that he walked away. Annabeth didn't look too happy about taking a ship. _But at least she trusts me._ I thought _Or maybe she just wants to say: I told you so._ Either way we had to get someone to build a ship, and I knew just who to ask.

"Beckendorf can make us a good ship by tomorrow." I said

"We'll go ask him then, I'll get the stuff we need at the store. And Percy, maybe we should wait until we're on the ship to change our appearances."

"Ask them for enough money to make it look like I looted it before I left."

"Good idea."

"Alright, let's go then."

We split up, me to the Hephestus cabin, Annabeth to the camp store. On the way to the cabin I thought about the fact that Annabeth actually admitted I had a good idea. I've only heard her say that to me a few times. That must mean I had a real good idea.

When I got to the Hephestus cabin I knocked on the door and a real big guy opened it, and I coughed as all the smoke from the forge blew into my face.

"What," said the big Hephestus kid

"I–*cough*–need to talk–*cough*–Beckendorf." I said

"Hang on." he said

Then he shut the door and I heard a couple of yells and Beckendorf opened the door. Releasing more smoke.

"Ya?" he said

"Can you–*cough*–come out and shut–*cough*–door?" I said

"Sure, I guess."

Then he came out and shut the door.

"Can you tell me why you disrupted me?" he said

"Ya, I have special orders from Chiron, top secret, hushishitty-hush, okay?"

"Ya, your point?"

"The orders are for you, I need to know if you can keep them a secret, it actually is life or death."

"Alright, it's safe with me."

I looked around to see if anyone was walking by, then dropped my voice to a whisper.

"Me and Annabeth need a ship to go on a quest, an old fashion kind of ship, and we need it by tomorrow. Like I said life or death."

"Okay, I'll see what we can do."

"Oh ya, I forgot, you can't tell anyone and no one can help you, the quest is supposed to be a secret."

"That's going to be allot harder, but I can do it. What time do you need it by tomorrow?"

"Before everyone wakes up, so I'd say around four o'clock, Chiron gave you permission to work through the night."

"Okay, but I won't have time to build defense systems or a radar…"

"No, we need a three mast ship. It's the only kind I can control."

"Oh, that'll take allot less time."

"Just make sure no one sees it, okay?"

"Ya, got it. Meet me at the docks tomorrow at four and you'll have your ship."

"Thanks."

"I haven't done anything yet, why are you thanking me?"

"See you tomorrow morning Beckendorf."

"Ya, see you."

"Wait…can you make it the way I describe it?"

**Annabeth POV**

We split up, Percy heading towards the Hephestus cabin, me heading towards the camp store. On the way I thought about Percy's idea, it was pretty good. He was pretending to be a son of Hermes, so why wouldn't he have robbed the camp store for some cash and drachma before he ran away? I went into the store and looked around. I grabbed a tube of black hair dye and a tube of dirty blond. Then I went to the clothes and grabbed a black leather biker's jacket and a three sizes too big brown Harley Davidson T-shirt then I went up to the counter.

"Cash or Drachma?" said the nymph at the counter

"Cash." I said

"$32.75 please."

I handed him the money and asked.

"Me and my friend Percy have to go on a quest tomorrow morning and we need to make it look like he looted the store, do you have any money we can borrow?"

"What's this quest for?"

"I'm sorry, Chiron said to keep it a secret."

"Do you at least have proof you're going on one?"

"Look at the stuff I'm buying. It's to disguise ourselves."

"Alright, it's not like this box is going anywhere anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"A few years ago we put aside some stuff just in case something like this happened."

"You did?"

"Yes, this is it."

He pulled out a black box the size of a few shoe-boxes stacked on top of eachother.

"In this box you'll find sixty drachma, four-hundred dollars, some first-aid supplies, and a weeks worth of food and water, or at least enough for two people, as almost nobody goes alone. The box can shrink down small enough to fit in your back pocket—like a wallet, just tap the lid three times to shrink it, the same to enlarge it, the objects inside shrink too. And don't worry about sitting on it, the box is indestructible."

"Thank you, Mr.–"

"Chilys."

"Thank you, Mr. Chilys."

"Just don't fail whatever it is your doing, okay?"

"We won't."

"That's all I ask. Gook luck!"

With that I left, as soon as I was out the door I shrunk the box and put it in my back right pocket. And started jogging off to the Athena cabin, I had less than a day to get ready for the hardest quest ever and I wasn't leaving packing to the last minute.

When I got to to my cabins I walked to my bunk and realized _Wait, if I'm homeless I wont have many clothes, and the ones I do have will be holey and dirty. I can probably get away with the jacket and T-shirt, Percy could have bought those for me, but not clean, hole free jeans and shirts._ I thought about the problem for a minute, then I took out the pair of blue-jeans I was going to wear tomorrow and threw them into the mud outside and stomped them in, then I picked them up and took out my knife and cut a hole on the left knee. Then I hung them up to dry. I stood back and admired my work. They looked perfectly like a homeless persons jeans. Aside from my knife the new clothes I bought and the box of supplies they were the only thing I could take. I wondered if Percy had finished packing, _or even started_ I thought. I started walking over his cabin. I knocked on the door but there was no answer. Then I remembered how distant he was this morning. _He goes to the beach when he needs to think that much._ So I started walking to the beach. On the way I wondered what Percy was thinking about so much. He'd asked me about dream prophecies earlier, but…they almost never bother him this much…maybe it was a real bad one, like the camp getting overrun by monsters. By the time I'd reached this conclusion I could see Percy sitting on the sand with a can of Diet Pepsi Max, the only kind of soda they sell at the store, the only one that's allowed in camp. Except for mealtimes. I walked over to him and sat down next to him. After a few minutes of staring at the waves he spoke.

"Did you get the supplies and dye?"

"Ya, is Beckendorf building the ship?"

"Uh-huh"

A few more minutes of silence passed.

"I'm sorry." he said quietly

"For what?"

"Not being so clear, being grumpy and rude…"

"Everyone has the right to think Seaweed Brain."

"But still…"

_Alright, I need to ask him, maybe he'll tell me now…_

"What did you dream last night?"

His face hardened "Who said anything about a dream?"

"Percy, you don't have to tell me, but I'm pretty sure something bad must have happened in a dream to make you think this much."

He had his thinking hard look again. "Kronos said he has more control over me than I realize…"

"Is that all of it?"

He got a slightly nervous look and stared at me for a minute, like a guard dog.

"It's the only part that matters."

But I could tell my best friend was lying to me.

"Alright, just remember, you _can_ talk to me."

He stared at the ocean for a minute. "I know, just think, tomorrow we'll be off to spy on the spies. That'll be pretty fun."

I could tell he changed the subject on purpose, and the way he looked at me when he told me '_It's the only part that matters' _gave me a sneaking suspicion the part he left out was about…_me_. But I decided to play along, I'd worm the rest out of him later.

"Ya, but the trouble staying afloat thing is still bothering me Percy."

"Don't let it."

Then the conch horn blew for lunch.

**Percy POV**

Annabeth sat next to me. I wondered how she knew I was here. But I wasn't about to ask her, she'd probably say something about me being more predictable then an old hollywood western. I thought about what was going to happen tomorrow. _Well, it's going to be four in the morning, I think at least Annabeth will wanna get more sleep._

"Did you get the supplies and dye?"

"Ya, is Beckendorf building the ship?"

"Uh-huh"

I looked at the waves pounding on the beach. Then I realized how much of a jerk I was being this morning.

"I'm sorry." I said

"For what?"

"Not being so clear, being grumpy and rude…"

"Everyone has the right to think Seaweed Brain."

"But still…"

"What did you dream last night?" The question came out of nowhere. Then I remembered I never told her about it. I…I _couldn't_…it'd be _way_ too awkward.

"Who said anything about a dream?"

"Percy, you don't have to tell me but I'm pretty sure something bad must have happened in a dream to make you think this much."

_How did she know I even had a dream? I never even told her about it! Wait, I'd asked her about dream prophecies earlier…maybe she put two and two together. I can't tell her the beginning though…it'd be too weird._

"Kronos said he has more control over me than I realize…"

"Is that all of it?"

_No, I left out the beginning, there was a really weird part where I saw you…Almost dead. But I'm not going to let that happen!_ I reminded myself.

"It's the only part that matters."

"Alright, just remember, you _can_ talk to me."

_We need to get off this subject before I say something embarrassing…_

"I know, just think, tomorrow we'll be off to spy on the spies. That'll be pretty fun."

"Ya, but the trouble staying afloat thing is still bothering me Percy."

_I can't believe she doesn't trust me! After all we've been through!_

"Don't let it."

Then the horn sounded for lunch.


	5. Time to go already?

**Time to go already?**

**Annabeth POV**

I woke up to Percy tapping on the window next to my bunk. He was wearing a camp shirt and black jeans, a Navy Blue backpack was slung over his shoulders.I checked my watch to see the time. 4:15. Oh, man. I hate being late. I grabbed the cut-up dirty pants I was going to wear and the shirt and jacket. I was going to put on the pants before the ship, but to avoid suspicion I was going to put a Camp Half-blood T-shirt on instead of the jacket and Harley Davidson shirt which, under normal circumstances I wouldn't be caught dead in. I'm not a girly-girl, I just have my limits. And the jacket and tee? Well. they seemed a little too…well…_guyish._ I was going to change right there but Percy just stood there goggle-eyed through the window as I reached to take off my nightshirt. _Oops, forgot to shut the shade._ Carefully, trying not to wake up my siblings, I tiptoed to the bathroom and changed. Then I strapped my knife, handle pointing toward my fingers, so I could grab it faster, under my left shirt sleeve. Then quietly I grabbed the box of supplies put it in my back right pocket and slipped outside. And then I started following him.

"Did you forget to set your alarm?" I whispered

"No, I set it for 3:50 so I could get ready by 4:00. Just like you wanted me too."

"Then, what went wrong?"

"Nothing, I was out the door by 4:00, why?"

"Percy, it doesn't take fifteen minutes to walk to my cabin."

"Ya…your point."

"What were you doing for fifteen minutes?"

"Um…looking for your bunk?"

"Wait a second, were you…watching me sleep?"

"NO!" he whisper exclaimed, although his face had turned beet red.

_Oh my gods, he was!_ I thought, I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt. _Why would he be watching _me_ sleep? _"Hey," he said "Put your extra clothes in my pack, we don't need Beckendorf asking any questions." I put my jacket and tee in his pack, and then we started moving again. By now we were on the sand and the ship came into view, I gasped. Beckendorf had made an almost exact replica of the ship me and Percy had sailed through the Sea of Monsters with. I knew Beckendorf was fast, but this was just…unreal! Beckendorf was standing with Chiron watching us approach. He was holding something shining against the moonlight, but I couldn't make it out in the darkness. "Are you ready?" said Chiron lowly

"Ya, is the ship?" I said

"You bet." said Beckendorf._ Oh, he's holding a glass bottle, _I realized.

"Good, let's go." said Percy

Chiron walked onto the ship with us, and we stopped once we got to the top of the ramp. "Good luck." he said

"All we need is enough luck to not have someone recognize us." said Percy

"Don't jinx us Seaweed Brain!" I said

"Just don't take any unnecessary chances." Chiron said

"We won't…right Percy?"

"We won't." he said

"Good, now get going."

"Goodbye." I said

"Goodbye" Chiron said

Then he trotted down the ramp. Once he reached the bottom I looked at Percy and waited for him to work his magic. His face went blank. I think the face he gets when he's like that is funny, even a little cute. Whoa…_what_? Then he yelled "Mizzenmast!" and the whole ship seemed to come alive. The ropes got tight and the masts dropped, and…well, I'll never tell him but…I don't know a whole lot about how to set up an old ship. But apparently everything was good because he nodded his head triumphantly. As we started moving Beckendorf threw the bottle at the ship and it broke against the hard wood. Once Chiron and Beckendorf were out of sight Percy said "So what do we do now?"

"Sleep." I said

"You go ahead, I'm going to check the ship out. I'll be down in a few minutes."

I went below deck and found the Captains quarters, then I went through the door. Inside there were two beds bolted to the floor.(I think Beckendorf realized we probably didn't want to sleep in hammocks in the crew quarters.) In between the beds on the wall was a pair of crossed blades. The roof had a light so I flipped the switch next to the door. The whole room lit up. I chose the bed on the left, don't ask me why, I don't know. It was the furthest from the door I guess. In between the beds on the floor was a small green and blue oval throw rug. On the right side of my bed and the left side of his were night stands with lamps on them. The night stands had three shelves each and I put my stuff in the top one. Then I turned off the lights and went to bed fully clothed.

**Percy POV**

As I checked out the ship I replayed earlier this morning in my head. I'd woken up annoyed to my alarm clock, and had completely forgot I had a quest for a second. Then when I got up, I packed my stuff if the backpack, which I still had on my shoulders. I had gotten out of my cabin by 4:00 just like Annabeth wanted me to and started up to her cabin. Once I found her window (she'd showed it to me the day before when she told me the plan for getting up.) I was about to tap on it when my I saw her. She looked so…at peace, and she was smiling, like she was having a great dream. I liked it, she looked pretty…well…nice. After what only felt like a few seconds I tapped on her window. When she woke up she looked at me like she'd forgotten about the quest too. Then she reached over and grabbed her clothes and (hey don't get made at me! It's a natural male reaction!) was about to take off her shirt and I stood there staring at her, totally oblivious to the world, I couldn't believe it. Then she must have remembered me, because she tiptoed to her bathroom to change.

I turned a corner and found myself outside the Captains quarters. So far Beckendorf had made the ship like I told him too, I wondered if the CQ was. I opened the door, and saw Annabeth sleeping in her jeans and tee, and realized she must be _really _tired. I put my backpack on the floor next to my night stand and shucked my shirt. (I think I'll keep my pants on while sleeping in a room with her in it!) Then went to sleep.


	6. Days on a ship

**Days on the ship**

**Percy POV**

The morning sun was beating down on my back, but it wasn't hot. The sea spray put a nice crisp to the air and Annabeth wasn't up yet. _It is only 8:30 though_ I thought. I'd been up since 8:00, after a good rest, and had come out to see where we were. My nautical senses told me we were already halfway through New Jersey's part of the ocean. Annabeth told me we were going to go through Panama Canal, about 3,000 miles by sea. It would take us three or four days to get to the entrance, and about two and a half hours to get through it. As long as we stayed at twenty knots, which is pretty darn fast for a sailing ship, but the ship never seemed to go _below_ twenty, maybe because of me. We were going to go in between Cuba and Florida, then head East toward the canal, then North towards California. I still didn't know what to do with the ship when we reached San Francisco, but I figured I'd just dock it at an island and we'd take a ferry ride. "How long have you been up?" yawned Annabeth, who was in the doorway from the stairs.

"About a half an hour."

"Rhetorical, Seaweed Brain."

"Oh…"

"Were are we?"

"A couple miles off the coast of mid-New Jersey. When do you think we should change?"

"We should avoid dying our hair too early or it might grow and we'd have streaks of black and blond. So I'd say maybe, just after we get out of Panama Canal."

"How'd you get that?"

"Simple math, you ju-"

"Please, do me a favor, and don't talk about things you know I don't understand."

She smiled "See, you've already realized your head is full of kelp." We stood on the bow of the ship looking at the sea, then her stomach growled. "I told Beckendorf to leave some food in the kitchen, if you want any." I said

"Good, I'm starving," she said and started towards the stairs "do you want anything?"

Ya, bacon and eggs. If you please." She laughed and said something about how there can't be much electricity on a wooden ship as she walked down the stairs. To be honest I was surprised Beckendorf put working lights on a ship he didn't have much time to build. I wondered if he put an oven on here, or a shower. A few minutes of staring at the sea later I decided I'd better eat so I headed off to the kitchen. I was really surprised that as I got closer to it, I smelled bacon. When I opened the door I was shocked to see Annabeth in a kitchen, just like a single-wide trailers kitchen, _cooking. _"How did Beckendorf do it?" was all I could say.

"I guess he's allot faster than we thought huh?" she said looking up at me, and shaking the pan of bacon.

"I guess so." I said sitting down sideways on a chair and putting my arm on the backrest, so I had a perfect view of her. She took the bacon out of the pan and cracked open four eggs.

"I assumed you'd eat two." she said

"Ya." I said. When the eggs were done a few minutes later she put two eggs and half the bacon on each plate and handed me one and a fork. I grabbed a piece of bacon and chewed it, it was perfect, not too crispy or chewy, "I didn't know you could cook." I said starting on my eggs. Her face reddened a little.

"Well, I'm not exactly the best cook ever Percy."

"It's still better than I assumed…"

"So that means you thought I was a bad cook?" she sounded a little offended

"No…" I said watching my step, (You do _not_ want to make a even a little girl angry, they'll bring it up years later during some other argument. Trust me, I know.) "I just never thought about you cooking before."

"Okay…" I could tell she was trying to avoid a fight too.

"We'll then," I said finishing my breakfast, "what's for lunch?" She smiled and said

"I'll tell you when you're done doing the dishes."

"Ouch," I said jokingly. Then she walked up the stairs, leaving me to my thoughts.

**Annabeth POV**

I woke up and turned to see if Percy was still in his bed, but it was an empty mess of bed sheets and a blanket. I got out of my bed and then made _both_ of them. I had a feeling this ship was going to be a mess unless I picked it up. Then I opened up the door and went up the stairs, I stopped at the top because I saw Percy standing at the front of the ship, facing the sun. I smiled, "How long have you been up?" I said

"About a half an hour."

"Rhetorical, Seaweed Brain." Gods sometimes I wonder if he's just playing dumb.

"Oh…"

"Were are we?"

"A couple miles off the coast of mid-New Jersey. When do you think we should change?"

"We should avoid dying our hair too early or it might grow and we'd have streaks of black and blond. So I'd say maybe, just after we get out of Panama Canal."

"How'd you get that?"

"Simple math, you ju-"

"Please, do me a favor, and don't talk about things you know I don't understand."

I smiled "See, you've already realized your head is full of kelp." We stood on the front of the ship, him looking at the sea, I was looking at him, because…something about the way he looks when he's on the sea is just…_better_. Then my stomach betrayed me by growling. That is so embarrassing! "I told Beckendorf to leave some food in the kitchen, if you want any." he said

"Good, I'm starving," I admitted and started to walk towards the kitchen. "do you want anything?"

"Ya, bacon and eggs. If you please." he joked

"Ya, right," I laughed as I walked away "I'm surprised there's enough electricity on this boat to run the lights." When I got in the kitchen though, I was amazed. There was a sink, (don't ask me how that works on a boat!) a stove, a small table, two chairs, some cupboards, a microwave, and a refrigerator! I looked in the fridge to see what it had in it, it was completely stocked, there was even a turkey! 'Bacon and eggs, if you please.' I remembered Percy say. I knew he wasn't serious, but I wanted to surprise him. But halfway through cooking the bacon, the surprise was ruined when he walked in. "How did Beckendorf do it?" he said

"I guess he's allot faster than we thought huh?" I said looking up at him to see his face, then I shook the pan.

"I guess so." Then he sat down sideways on a chair and put his arm on the backrest, then he started _watching_ me! Carefully, trying not to embarrass myself, I took the bacon out of the pan and cracked open four eggs. _Oh no, what if he doesn't want two!_ I thought. I decided to test my theory. "I assumed you'd eat two."

"Ya." he said. When the eggs were done a few minutes later I put two eggs and half the bacon on each plate and handed him one, along with a fork. I watched him grab a piece of bacon and chew it. _Please let him like it_, was my only thought. "I didn't know you could cook." he said, starting on his eggs. I felt my face grow hot. _He likes it!_

"Well, I'm not exactly the best cook ever Percy." I started on my breakfast.

"It's still better than I assumed…"

"So that means you thought I was a bad cook?" I wondered if he thought me incapable of household chores. "No…" he said, I could tell he was thinking hard about what to say next. "I just never thought about you cooking before."

"Okay…" I said, I didn't want to fight on the first day of the quest…or at all for that matter. But I still wondered why he didn't think I could cook.

"We'll then," he said finishing his breakfast, "what's for lunch?" I smiled, I wonder how he'll take _this?_ Then I said "I'll tell you when you're done doing the dishes."

"Ouch," he said jokingly. Then I walked up the stairs, wondering if it was going to be like this _all the time._

––––––––––––––––

That night we sat at the table, eating fish sticks and macaroni and cheese, telling jokes and funny stories, like the time Chiron had lost a bet with Dionysus, and had to go to the camp's prom, _in drag!_ We'd sat there for so long we lost track of time and my watch said 11:38, _Whoa, how did it get so late?_ I thought. "Percy, I'm getting a little tired, I'm going to go to bed." He looked a little disappointed, but he tried to hide it.

"Okay, I guess I'll go to bed too."

Once we'd gotten into the Captain's Quarters I mumbled "Styx, I forgot…I couldn't pack extra clothes, or nightwear."

"Well…" He blushed, and I mean _BLUSHED_, "You could…um…borrow one of my shirts…and, a pair of shorts…" Now it was my turn for a huge blush,

"Uhhh…I…um, thanks Percy."

"Well…you don't want to be in the same clothes for gods know how long, do you?"

Suddenly, I remembered that I had no other clothes besides my jacket and other tee, which, (Of course!) were daywear, and I felt a big rush of gratitude towards Percy. "Thanks." I said, he dug through his pack and got a pair of black shorts and a black D.A.R.E. 'To keep kids off drugs.' shirt.

"Here," he said, I grabbed the clothes and went outside the room to change. They were meant for boys, so they were huge on me, the shirt was like a dress and hung extremely baggy, down to my mid-thigh, and the shorts had enough room in the legs left for another one of me! Then I walked back into the room, my face crimson. He was sitting on his bed, shirtless in a pair of shorts. "Have you been working out?" I blurted

"Well…ya, I need to be in my best health when the war comes…" he said

"Well…you look go—um…healthy." _Oh no… _I thought

"Thanks, you too…" he said, not noticing my mess-up. I turned off the light, went over to my bed and started getting in. "The clothes fit?" he said.

"Ya, I guess."

"Good…" A few minutes of silence later I couldn't fall asleep, and for some reason I caught myself looking at him and wondering what he was thinking. He was facing the wall, and looked asleep. It was nice not seeing allot of stress on him…it reminded me of when I'd nursed him back to health, the first time. The thoughts brought me to sleep. My last thoughts were, _this day was awesome._


	7. I told you so

**I told you so**

**Percy POV**

The days flew by quickly and before I knew it we were at the entrance to the Panama Canal, but I didn't tell Annabeth, after all, it was 5:20 in the morning. I'd woken up early because I'd had the same dream I had a few days ago. But this time, I was really scared, the wounded Annabeth was now fresh in my mind and I was scared it really _was_ going to happen. I'd thought about the dream a few times during the trip, but I didn't tell Annabeth. I didn't get to think very long though because a fog horn from a ship blew, not even a half a mile away. It jumped me, I wasn't expecting it. I yelled at the ship that it was only 5:20, but I didn't think the driver heard me. A few minutes of cursing at the ship later Annabeth appeared in the stairway, still wearing the clothes I leant her for sleeping in, and I shut my mouth. I was always taught three things about chivalry, 1. Never, ever, under any circumstances, do you _ever _hit a woman, 2. Never use a (bad) four letter word within earshot of a woman, 3. Always be polite and open doors, and other stuff like that for a woman. "Good morning." I said.

"Good morning, what _was_ that? Why were you yelling at that ship?"

"That guy just woke you up."

"What do you mean?"

"The idiot set off his fog horn, not even a mile from the ship."

"So why were you yelling? He can't hear you."

"Haven't you ever seen a man yell at a sports game on T.V.?"

"Ya, but what's that have to do with anything?"

"It's kinda like that."

"Oh…wait, where are we. No one is supposed to be taking our route!"

"We're just got on Panama Canal a few minutes ago."

"That's great, Percy! We'll be in San Francisco in no time!" The only problem was, I didn't want to go to San Francisco. The last couple days were so great that…I didn't want it to end. I looked at Annabeth and thought some more about the dream. _Why is she almost dead. Why…why wasn't I there…to protect her! I can't let that happen! She…she could have been…dead. _"There you go again." Annabeth said

"What?"

"You keep staring at me. All trip you've just been normal one second, then you're staring at me."

"Sorry, just thinking…"

"About what?" she said this carefully, like she knew this was a touchy subject.

"Nothing." I lied. I can't tell her…she'll think I'm crazy! Or a creep!

"So…you don't want to talk about it?"

"What's to talk about?"

"Whatever's bothering you,"

"I'm not bothered."

"Come on Percy, even one of Ares's kids could tell something's wrong."

"Annabeth, nothing's wrong."

"Fine…" she sighed. We watched the sea for a few minutes. "What are you doing up so early anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep." I said

"Why?"

"I had a…I just…needed some air." I lied

"Is it…the same thing as back at camp?"

"Ya…"

"Does it…does it have…anything to do with…with me?" I wondered how she'd figured that out. But I couldn't _tell_ her! 'Ya Annabeth I had a dream you were almost dead.' I imagined saying. Now _that_ would be embarrassing. _No,_ I thought _I'll protect her, no matter what!_

"No…" I lied

"I _can _help you know…"

"There's nothing I need help with."

"Fine…" The waves lifted us up, and down. The sun was just starting to come over the horizon. The Canal wasn't very wide, at the most three or four miles wide, and 50 miles long. Awkward silence. A few minutes later Annabeth said.

"I'll be back in a sec."

"Where are you going?"

"_Percy,_ there's only five places on this ship! I'm not going back to bed, why would I go to the crew quarters, I'm already right here, and it's too early for breakfast! Where do you think I'm going?" she sounded slightly annoyed.

"Oh…sorry." She left. _Girls,_ I thought _what's so bad about saying 'I need to go to the bathroom.' _Oh well, women are a mystery no man can figure out. My watch beeped the half-hour. I climbed the stairs onto the rear deck where I'd told Beckendorf to leave some practice dummies from camp and drew Riptide. _Time to train like never before. _I thought.

**Annabeth POV**

I was awakened from a very nice dream by a very loud horn. _What's he doing now?_ I thought. I looked at my watch, 5:20! Seaweed Brain was going to pay for this! I got out of bed and stormed out the door, and climbed the stairs angrily. But…as I got closer to the top, I could here Percy swearing at something, from what I was hearing some captain was a real idiot. I'd reached the top, and Percy was telling the driver of some ship where his fog horn was going to be in five minutes if he sounded it again, when he saw me and stopped suddenly. "Good morning." he said.

"Good morning, what _was_ that? Why were you yelling at that ship?"

"That guy just woke you up."

"What do you mean?"

"The idiot set off his fog horn, not even a mile from the ship."

"So why were you yelling? He can't hear you."

"Haven't you ever seen a man yell at a sports game on T.V.?"

_Plenty of times, _I thought _but I could never grasp why men would yell at people they knew couldn't hear them._

"Ya, but what's that have to do with anything?"

"It's kinda like that."

_Oh, _I thought sarcastically, _well that certainly clears that up! _Then I realized something.

"Oh…wait, where are we. No one is supposed to be taking our route!"

"We're just got on Panama Canal a few minutes ago."

"That's great, Percy! We'll be in San Francisco in no time!" Even as I said it I lost enthusiasm, the last couple of days had been great, just me and Percy, wait…why was I happy to be alone with Percy 'The Seaweed Brain' Jackson? Then he started staring at me again, for like, the millionth time since the day we got this quest!

"There you go again." I said

"What?"

"You keep staring at me. All trip you've just been normal one second, then you're staring at me."

"Sorry, just thinking…"

"About what?" I said carefully, I knew he had yelled at Grover for pushing it too far. But I guess my ADHD forced me too ask.

"Nothing."

_Liar. _I thought _If you don't want to talk about it, say something!_

"So…you don't want to talk about it?"

"What's to talk about?"

"Whatever's bothering you,"

"I'm not bothered."

"Come on Percy, even one of Ares's kids could tell something's wrong."

"Annabeth, nothing's wrong."

"Fine…" I sighed. We watched the sea for a few minutes. "What are you doing up so early anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep." I said

"Why?"

"I had a…I just…needed some air." he stumbled

"Is it…the same thing as back at camp?"

"Ya…"

I remembered how he looked at me when we were on the beach, like a guard dog, and said 'It's all that matters." _Nows the time to ask,_ I thought.

"Does it…does it have…anything to do with…with me?"

"No…"

"I _can _help you know…"

"There's nothing I need help with."

"Fine…" The waves lifted us up, and down. The sun was just starting to come over the horizon. Awkward silence. A few minutes passed (Most of them with me looking at the way the sun shone off his face). Suddenly I had to…well…_go._

"I'll be back in a sec." I told him.

"Where are you going?"

Gods he can be so _stupid_ sometimes.

"_Percy,_ there's only five places on this ship! I'm not going back to bed, why would I go to the crew quarters, I'm already right here, and it's too early for breakfast! Where do you think I'm going?"

"Oh…sorry." he said stupidly as I started running for the ladies room.

–––––––––––––––––

_That feels better, _I thought on my way back from the restroom. On the way up the stairs I heard allot of banging and wondered what Percy was doing up there. When I got up the stairs I saw Percy hacking and slashing at a set of dummies. _Wow,_ I thought _he's gotten allot better! _He was moving twenty times faster and harder than when he first started fighting. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but I assumed it was because he was sweating so much. I watched his muscles ripple as he did his dirty work. _No, stop staring! _I thought. _Why would I be staring at his muscles, his firm six-pack, his solid pecks, the big biceps and triceps, his muscular back…No! Snap out of it!_ Stab one, spin around cut off one's leg, coming out of the swipe he used the momentum to spin around and decapitate the one to right of the one who was missing his leg, turn to the left stab one through the neck, begin to turn, notice me, pause, grin. _Uh-oh, _I thought. "Um…hi?" I said lamely.

"How long were you watching me?" he blushed.

"Just long enough to see him loose his leg." I pointed to the practice dummy.

"Huh, you'd think I would've saw you." _Why would he have saw me?_

"What do you mean by that?"

"I—um…your not hard to miss…" he stumbled.

"Are you saying I'm FAT!" I practically screamed.

"NO! I…um, I mean you're…um."

"YOU DID! MY GODS PERCY! YOU'RE SO RUDE!" _Am I _that _fat?_ I asked myself.

"NO! I didn't Annabeth! Stop putting words in my mouth!"

"PUTTING WORDS IN YOUR MOUTH AM I?!? WELL THEN WHAT DID YOU MEAN 'YOUR NOT HARD TO MISS'!"

"I…um…do I have to?" he quietly. What could possibly embarrass _him_ about a flaw in _my_ appearance?

"YES! I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MY APPEARANCE THAT'S BAD!"

"It's not bad though…" he said under his breath.

"What do you mean?" I said, calming down instantly.

"Wow, the sunrise sure is beautiful isn't it?"

"Percy," I groaned "stop trying to change the subject!"

"What subject?" he said, his face reddening by the second.

"Percy! You may be a Seaweed brain, but you suck at playing dumb!"

"Come on Annabeth…" he groaned "I've already told you it's not bad! Can't we just forget about all this?"

"No." I said stubbornly. Then he put Riptide up to his mouth and said something, but it sounded like.

"Uhrbtfel"

"What?"

"Come on Annabeth! Please!" His face could be compared to a tomato.

"No." I said. _What could be so bad he can't say it?_

"Your…um…I think your…uh…you couldn't get much more…um…ya."

"I couldn't get much more _what!_ Ugly! Fat! Cruel!"

"NO! None of those…"

"Well, what then!" I said growing impatient, wondering if I could fix the problem. He took a deep breath and said.

"B-b-b-buti-buti…" he stammered.

"Out with it!"

"Buti-butif-f-ful." he managed. My jaw dropped. _Holy Hades! _I thought. _He…he thinks…me? _I could feel _my _face burning.

"Go ahead," He said ashamed. "beat the Hades out of me…tease me…but it's the truth…"

"Percy, I can't…I…I didn't…I thought…I just…" I tried, but I didn't know what to say.

"Great!" he said "Now you hate me!"

"Percy! Don't be ashamed to compliment me!" _Gods, _I thought. _we've been friends _how long? _And he's afraid to compliment me? What, does he think that just because he tells me I'm…beautiful…_

"I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"Not complimenting you enough, I guess."

"You _guess._" He shrugged his shoulders and turned around and started beating the Hades out of the dummies again. _Well,_ I thought _Seaweed Brain thinks I'm beautiful. _I honestly didn't know what to think about the compliment. I wondered if I should have told him he looks good too. _Coward_. A voice in my head said. Part of me knew it was right. Percy could've ignored me, but instead he decided to tell me what he thought. Yet I couldn't tell _him he _looked good. _Coward. _The voice said again. _Shut up. _I told it. I watched Percy practice until 7:30, when I started to get hungry. I headed down to the kitchen, wondering what to have for breakfast. _Maybe I'll make breakfast burritos. _I thought. **(A/N: A breakfast burrito for those of you who don't know, is scrambled eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon, and assorted peppers and onions wrapped in a tortilla.)** _Ya, I'll make breakfast burritos._ Then I got started cooking.

**Percy POV**

_I can't believe I told her…_ I thought. _I _really_ can't believe she didn't kill me. _I shoved Riptide into the stomach of a dummy and brought it through to it's neck. I put away Riptide and dropped into push-up form. 1, 2, 3, 4, I thought about the quest, it seemed straight forward enough. Annabeth and me would disguise ourselves and join Kronos's army and feed the camp vital details for a few weeks. My worst fear was being compromised though. My thoughts were interrupted when a great smell entered my nose though. Bacon, eggs, cheese, sausage, I got up and put on my shirt. Then ran down to the kitchen, hoping that the food was done.

I opened the door to the kitchen and saw Annabeth cooking. She looked up and smiled.

"Why, hello Seaweed Brain."

"Hi, Wise Girl. Food almost done?"

"As a matter of fact it is." she said. And she gave me a plate that had two stuffed breakfast burritos. I sat at the table and took a bite of one, perfect. Just like her…wait, _what?_ "I swear," I said as I swallowed my second bite. "your cooking gets better every day."

"Thanks." She smiled, as she took a bite. "So, when are we getting out of the canal?"

"In about ten minutes, why?"

"Because, Percy, we need to change!"

"Oh, ya. After breakfast though."

"Defiantly." she agreed.

————————————

The hair dye was all over my head, even (although it says not to in the directions!) on my eyebrows. It couldn't look like we'd dyed our hair, it had to look natural. **(A/N: I've never dyed my hair, it's one of the many things I believe only women should do, not that I'm sexist, and even then, I like people better with their natural color hair. Anyway, I've never dyed my hair so I might get some of this wrong. For more info on how I feel on subjects like this listen to the songs 'I'm still a guy' by Brad Paisley, and 'The Truth About Men' by Tracy Byrd.) **I washed it all out with water. Then I left the bathroom to Annabeth. I went to bed, we'd put off dyeing till about ten minutes ago, now it was 10:30 at night, and two days after we'd passed through the canal, and we were pretty tired. So we'd decided to go to bed after too. Once I'd gotten through the door I sat on my bed, took off my shirt, and swapped my pants for shorts. Then I turned off the light and got into bed. I laid there thinking for a while, facing the fall, slowly getting to sleep. The last thing I saw before I went to bed was Annabeth, sneaking into the room with a flashlight. I guess she thought I was sleeping, because she didn't turn on the light and she changed her clothes _in the room! _But, out of respect for her I didn't turn around.

————————————

I woke up groggily, happy that I hadn't had a nightmare last night. Annabeth was still sleeping, I smiled. I got dressed and grabbed my backpack and put all of our stuff except Annabeth's Harley Davidson T-shirt and her leather biker's jacket and her jeans, I had a suspicion that we wouldn't be spending another night on this ship. Then I left to go to the bathroom. When I saw my face in the mirror I almost drew Riptide. I looked just like Luke, minus the scar, and with green eyes. _Creepy, _I thought. After I'd done my business I headed to the upper deck to train some more. My Nautical senses told me we were about halfway across the Peninsula of California, about 280 miles North-West of La Paz, Mexico, going twenty-four knots. I looked at my watch, 8:27. Wow, _Annabeth usually gets up around 8:30! _I thought. I didn't know why I was so excited to have her get up. I took off my shirt and began to train against the practice dummies. A few minutes later a tired Annabeth yawned, "Percy? Is that you?" I turned to look at her, she was dressed up in the Harley Davidson shirt and the leather jacket wasn't zipped. I could live with the clothes, but what I _really _didn't like was her hair, it was now black as midnight. She'd ruined her perfect self by changing her hair color. She looked better with honey-blond hair.

"Of course," I said "who'd you think I was, Clarisse?" She laughed a little at the joke, but it didn't look as good in her new form.

"Of course not."

"Good," She looked around and saw my backpack.

"So that's where all my stuff is. Why'd you pack us up?"

"I've got a feeling we won't be spending another night on the ship."

"_Percy,_" She groaned "even my _toothbrush?" _I realized the problem quickly.

"Oops. It's in the front pocket." As she was rifling through the pack she said.

"Percy I was thinking, we need to get used to our 'new names'. So we need to call eachother Mike and Amy, okay?"

"Fine." I said flatly.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." I lied. I liked Annabeth better than _Amy_. It was bad enough she changed her hair, now I had to call her Amy?

"Alright, if you say so…" She said, then she walked down the stairs to the bathroom. I watched her leave. _Stupid quest, making us completely change ourselves._ I thought. I couldn't practice anymore so I capped Riptide and headed to the kitchen. _Pancakes,_ I thought. _they're easy to make. _So I started taking out the ingredients.

**Annabeth POV**

I rolled awake and saw Percy's empty bed. I wonder what time he woke up _now._ I put on the Harley shirt and the jacket, but didn't zip it. Then I put on my disgusting, holy, muddy jeans. I went over to the bathroom to brush my teeth, but nothing was there. I turned to the bedroom and noticed all of our stuff was gone. _What's Seaweed Brain doing _now? I thought. I climbed up the stairs to see where he was. I saw someone slicing at the group of training dummies. He looked like Luke, but before I ran down the stairs to get my knife I decided to find out who it was. As me and Percy were the only ones on the ship. "Percy? Is that you?" I said. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. I noticed I didn't like his new hair color. Black looked allot better on him. Then he looked disgusted. _What wrong? _I thought.

"Of course," he said "who'd you think I was, Clarisse?" I giggled (and I _never _giggle!), _since when did Seaweed Brain get a _good _sense of humor? _I thought.

"Of course not."

"Good," I looked around and saw his backpack. Why'd he packed up?

"So that's where all my stuff is. Why'd you pack us up?"

"I've got a feeling we won't be spending another night on the ship."

"_Percy,_" I groaned "even my _toothbrush?" _He realized my problem quickly.

"Oops. It's in the front pocket." As I was looking for my toothbrush I said.

"Percy I was thinking, we need to get used to our 'new names'. So we need to call eachother Mike and Amy, okay?"

"Fine." he said flatly.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"Alright, if you say so…" I said, then I walked down the stairs to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

————————————

_I'm getting hungry. _I thought. So I headed down to the kitchen where I heard screaming and loud bangs. Running to the door I ripped it open and saw a sight that _would _have been hilarious if it didn't put us in danger of sinking. Percy was slamming a frying pan against one of the burners which _of course _were on fire. I looked in the cupboard where I'd seen…yes! I grabbed the fire extinguisher and ripped out the pin. Then I aimed it at the fire and pulled the trigger. Fshooooo! The Co2 clouded the fire and put it out. I turned worriedly toward Percy. "What were you _doing!" _I said.

"Uhhh…trying to cook."

"New rule," I panted "I cook."

"Good plan. Apparently…I can't."

"What were you making anyway?"

"Pancakes."

"And how did the stove catch fire?" he blushed.

"Can we not talk about this…_ever._" I snickered.

"Move over Seaweed Brain. I'll cook us something that won't blow up."

"Hey!"

"It's true." I said. He growled and sat down on a chair at the table. I looked at the mess he'd made. Bisquick and milk was all over the counter, and so were eggs. I took a wash cloth and wiped it down. Then got the batter all mixed up. _How can you mess up pancakes? _I thought, as I cooked up the pancakes.

—————————————

**Percy POV**

I was standing on the Bow looking out into the sea when Annabeth stood nest to me. I was thinking about how I'd screwed up breakfast. I had my backpack on my shoulders, because I knew I'd loose it. "Got the time?" She said

"2:38." I replied

"What about our position?"

"We're thirty miles west of San Diego."

"Well, that gr-" but she was interrupted by a loud roar. I spun around to see what it was just in time to roll out of the way, as a giant purple dragon came swooping at us.

"Great!" I shouted "Puff the Magic Dragon wants to fight!"

"Mike! We don't stand a chance!" she shouted. For a second I didn't know who she was talking to. Then I remembered my codename.

"We can take it, Amy!" I shouted back over the dragon's roar.

"You'd better hope so Sea-boy!" I uncapped Riptide, as the dragon turned in the air. Then it dove full speed at us. I dove out of the way at the last second and plunged the blade into its right flank. It roared and kept barreling past. As it turned in the sky again, I saw it start to breath fire. Then it charged at us shooting fire. _Great._ Was my only thought. As I dove passed this time I felt the flame lick my right pant leg. When I got up I realized the whole bow of the ship was on fire. We wouldn't survive many more attacks by Barny. Then I got an idea. "Annabeth!" I yelled.

"What!" I heard her yell over the flames.

"Where are you!"

"Over here! By the edge!" I looked over and saw her next to the edge of the ship, four feet away from me. _Good,_ I thought.

"Do you trust me!" I yelled.

"What!" She yelled annoyed. like she couldn't believe I was asking her this question at a time like this.

"Do you trust me!"

"Why!" She yelled, I dove passed the dragon again, this time toward Annabeth, now we were three feet apart, and the dragon screeched in frustration.

"Just answer!"

"Fine! Yes! I trust you!" She yelled

"Then be prepared!"

"For what!"

"Just brace yourself!" The dragon was circling back now. I had to time this perfectly. I only had one chance at this. The dragon was now coming back, fast as a nuclear missile. One-onethousand, two-onethousand, THREE! I dove passed Annabeth and reached out my arm around her waist and we flew off the ship. I heard the distant yelp as the dragon flew into the floor and knocked itself out. The whole way down Annabeth was screaming. _Uh, oh. _I remembered. _Annabeth can't absorb the waters impact! _I told the sea to remove the surface barrier. The small skin that lets insects walk on it. The part that would hurt Annabeth. And we crashed into the water. Once we were under Annabeth's eyes widened and she started freaking out. Her eyes said only _Air!_. So I made an air bubble. I held he with my left arm under her knees, and my right arm on her shoulder blades. Like newlyweds crossing their new threshold. She took a few deep breaths and spit out some water, and said "Next time, Seaweed Brain…*cough*…tell me your plan!"

"Your welcome." I joked. She stared at me for a second. No, not at me passed me. I turned us around. The ship Beckendorf had made us was slowly sinking. Annabeth began to laugh. I looked at her. "What's so funny?"

"_On the way they'll have trouble staying afloat, _I told you so, Seaweed Brain!"

I turned the bubble, and headed towards San Diego with a still laughing Annabeth. One thing was for sure. We didn't have to worry about where we were going to put the ship when we got there!


	8. On the road again

**On The Road Again**

**Annabeth POV**

Some part of me had liked this the first time. But now I loved it! I was at the bottom of the ocean alone, being carried by Percy! I don't know why I liked it. Maybe because most people need to use a submarine or a diving suit, but _I_ just needed my best friend Percy. We were on our way to San Diego, or at least that's what he told me, and we'd be there in a half hour. I watched as dozens of fish swam by. One time I almost screamed because a Great White shark and his Mako buddies decided to get a good look at us. They got within ten feet of us and then swam away fast as lighting. I had a suspicion Percy had something to do with it. The minutes flew by, and before I knew it we were walking out of the surf _completely dry._ "Mike?" I said, as we walked up the beach and I marveled at the architecture of the Navy Base. I hate his new name. Percy is so much better than _Mike._

"Ya?"

"Do you think…we could go to the presidio?"

"What's that?"

"It was a military fort built by Spanish soldiers because of—" Then he interrupted.

"I don't need to know _everything _about it."

"Well, Seaweed Brain? Are we going?"

"You know," he said. "Why are you calling me Seaweed Brain if I'm supposed to be a son of _Hermes."_

"Good point, a rare thing for you. Are you feeling alright?" I joked.

"Ya, why do you have to act like I never know anything."

"Because you don't." I teased.

"Well I'm feeling fine." he said

"Huh, must be a full moon then."

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Wanna see if you can laugh with a mouth full of seaweed?"

"I wonder if your even smart enough to know were my mouth is, let alone how to put seaweed in it!"

"Shut up." He said jokingly

"So…do you think we can go?"

"Amy, normally that wouldn't be a problem but it is for two reasons. 1. We're pressed for time. 2. You know my luck with monuments…"

"It's not a _monument_, it's a fort!"

"Well you still know what happens when we go to places that tourists visit! Remember the Arch? Or the Smithsonian? Or Hoover Dam? You weren't there but we were attacked!" I was a little sad he didn't want to go but I could see the logic in that…wait…Percy…logic…there's two words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence (unless _never uses_ is in between). But I wasn't going to tell him how wise he was being, or he'd tease me for not realizing it first, my mom being Athena…Goddess of Wisdom.

"Well then, where are we going?"

"San Francisco."

"I meant how are we getting there? We can't use the ship anymore."

"Uhhh…bus?"

"What's the time?" He checked his watch.

"3:15, why?"

"Because I wanted to know if we need a bus with beds on it."

"Why?"

"It's going to take at least five hours to get there! And that's not counting stop lights, stop signs, we go completely strait to it, and at sixty miles an hour the whole way!"

"Oh."

—————————————

The bus was stinky, smelly, had no beds, an out of order bathroom, the ceiling and floor and…pretty much every metal thing on the bus were spotted with rust, the windows were grimy from fingerprints, spit, and (don't ask me how) rotting cheese. The seats were all ripped and the springs were poking out. _Great,_ I thought. _I have to spend the night on 'The Hobo Express.'_ We were the first ones on the bus and Percy was walking down the aisle, looking for a decent seat. Then grunting with approval found one that didn't have a spring shooting out of it, and sat on the inside. I was glad, I didn't have to sit next to the disgusting window. The busses T.V's started up, and the audio was coming from the speakers. The title popped up and I saw that the movie was _The Delta Force._ Not a bad pick, but I wondered if it was going to loop the whole way to San Francisco. Then, once everyone had found their seats and stored their luggage (Percy didn't in case we needed to make a quick getaway.). The bus lurched forward. I looked at Percy's watch, 4:38. _I can't believe that we found a bus in a half hour, that was leaving soon._ I thought. A few hours later, I fell asleep leaning on Percy and using his shoulder for a pillow.

**Percy POV**

Annabeth was sleeping on my left shoulder. I tried to concentrate on the movie that was playing, _Escape of the Mutant Ninja Pirates 2: The Cursed Treasure. _But I found myself watching her. Her new black hair was covering all but her right eye. I couldn't imagine how she could sleep in her biker's jacket, or on _me._ I…kinda liked it. I put my arm around her waist…to make sure she wouldn't fall. Then I leaned against the disgusting window and went to sleep.

**Dream Start**

_I was on Luke's ship. 'The Princess Andromeda'. The room, I realized, was the place we're they kept Kronos's coffin. But, instead of a coffin, there was a stone platform, about the size of a coffin, but with no lid, and I had a feeling it wasn't hollow. Kronos/Luke was standing out front of the platform. Then Ethan Nakamura stepped into the room. "M-milord, you summoned?" _

"_Yes," Said Kronos/Luke "are you ready to preform the ritual?" Ethan looked shocked, like he'd just won the world on a game-show._

"_M-me?"_

"_Yes." He knelt behind Kronos for a moment._

"_Thank you milord. I promise, I'll prove myself your best." Kronos laid on the stone platform._

"_Do it." He said. Ethan grabbed something from under the desk in the room, Kool-aid…no, not Kool-aid, blood. And he poured it on Kronos while muttering something in the magic language. Then he got Kronos's scythe from the corner, and gently set the six foot blade on the stone next to Kronos's neck, and started pulling it away from Kronos. I saw what looked like a spirit being pulled from Luke's body. Kronos, they were getting him a new body, now that his soul's been put back together. But where is it? I thought. When Ethan had pulled Kronos completely free of Luke Kronos grinned, he looked like some kind of buffed out Vin Diesel, if Vin was ten feet tall, had a broken nose, and gold eyes. Wait, I noticed color was bleeding into Kronos, he was becoming a real body. Not good. I thought. He grabbed his scythe and swung it down on the desk, crushing it to rubble._

"_Good," he said. "tend to Luke, if he dies, you die." Then Kronos left the room, and Ethan started mumbling something about him being better than Luke._

**Dream End**

"Well look whose finally awake." I heard Annabeth say. I turned my head and saw her smiling.

"What?" I said

"The driver said we'd be in San Francisco in ten minutes."

"Listen , I've got to tell you something." I said, and I told her about the new dream.

"This is _not _good Mike, not good at all." She said.


	9. Torture classes are before lunch

**Alright here's the next chapter. I'd like to say thanks to the reviewers (you know who you are.) for encouragement, so Thank you. If you want, (you have to tell me, I wont just assume.) I'll put previews of future chapters in the ones that I post. (If you can make any sense out of that.) Mistake alert!: Chapter: I told you so: I laid there for a while facing the **_**wall.**_

**Torture classes are before lunch**

**Percy POV**

San Francisco was just like I remembered it. Hot, humid, railroads in the street, and black fog around Mt. Tamalpias. Only this time the fog was ten times thicker. "We need to find the recruiter." I said.

"I think I know were he is." Annabeth said

"How?"

"I've seen someone ushering people over the bridge at sunset. Always two or three people."

"Okay, were do we find him now?"

"I don't know, why don't we just approach at sunset?"

"Okay, hopefully he's not just a tourist, or a homeless person."

"Let's go." She said. As we started to walk to the bridge, a good two or three miles to the left of where the bus dropped us off. After a few steps I looked at my watch, 6:43.

"Uh, Amy?"

"Ya?"

"Are we just…going to sit at the bridge all day?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well the only time we can get to the garden in at sunset, right?"

"Ya, so?"

"It's 6:45 in the morning! I don't want to sit on a bridge all day!"

"We weren't going to. We're going to find something to do _near _the bridge."

"So…what are we going to do?"

"We're going to look for something to do." _Gods, _I thought. Annabeth Chase _doesn't have a plan._

"You mean _you_ don't have a plan?" I teased. She blushed, and suddenly became very interested in the sidewalk.

"Uh…of course I do."

"No you don't."

"Shut up." She growled. I smiled. She'd got me good with the sinking ship, I'd just evened the score. We walked by a few stores. I only remembered because I saw a sign that was ridiculous it took me a few minutes to decipher it, but it was worth it. It said: **Bubba's Hair and Furniture. **But that wasn't the funny part, it was the slogan that was ridiculous: **Get your hair cut on a freshly made antique! **As far as I know, antiques were supposed to be really old. While I thought about that, Annabeth kept staring at the walkway.

"So…" I said, trying to break the silence.

"Mike, your…your dream, the one before…the one from camp." She couldn't say before Kronos came back.

"Ya? What about it?"

"Did you…leave anything out?" I thought for a second, _Should I tell her? No…I can't. It'd be waaay too awkward._

"No," I lied. I hoped I sounded convincing. She looked at me skeptically.

"Are you sure?"

"…Yes." She studied me for a minute, shrugged, as if she'd given up, and went back to looking at the sidewalk. A green Chevy Avalanche zoomed past us, honking loudly playing really loud country music (Brooks & Dunn I think) with a long haired driver with a goatee that had a crazed look. There was a wolf in the bed, barking up a storm. A few seconds later a California State Cop shot by, with a PO'd cop and a super loud siren. _Why do they always run? _I thought. _They'll just show up at your house, track you, or outnumber you. Either way you're caught and you get an extra fine for running._ _And what's with the wolf?_ I looked over at Annabeth who was wide eyed.

"Weird huh?" I said. "I wonder where he got the wolf."

"Per—Mike, did I just see what I think I just saw?"

"You mean the crazy guy in the Avalanche with a wolf?"

"Mike? Was that a Maine Timber wolf?"

"I thought they evicted wolves from Maine?"

"No animal can be a hundred percent evicted from anywhere, Mike, they're still there, just in smaller number."

"So, what if it was?"

"Then I think our chances of winning the war have been _hugely _improved."

"Some crazy guy with an angry wolf is going to help us?"

"I don't know if that was him Mike, but if it was…"

"Who!"

"Almost nobody knows his name Mike, but…"

"Alright, what's so good about him than?"

"I need to think Pe—Mike." And she stopped talking and kept studying the sidewalk. I wondered who the guy was, and how he could help. But I'd learned that over the years, even a pink poodle can help you. So, if Annabeth was right, whoever Crazy Goatee Guy was, he'd help us.

——————————————

I watched Annabeth win _again._ We were at an arcade, playing Pac-Man. She advanced to level 231 with all of her lives. I assumed being a daughter of Athena helped. "You're pretty good." I said.

"Thanks, but it's simple math. You see the red one, he takes the shortest way, the blue one, he's a strategist, th—"

"Just take the compliment!" I interrupted.

"Fine," she smiled. "Thank you."

"I'm going to go play pinball okay?"

"Ya, what time is it?" I looked at my watch.

"3:57."

"Alright, we're going to need to eat before we go, so meet me here at 5:30."

"Okay, where do you want to go?"

"Somewhere quick, it's gotta be good though."

"Burger King?"

"Sounds good enough."

"It's a date then." _Oh, damn, that didn't sound right._ Annabeth smiled, and went back to her game. _Good, she understood what I meant. _I went over to the pinball machine, and started to play.

——————————————

An hour and a half, fifty-two quarters and a milkshake later. I walked up to Annabeth. "Ready to go?" I said. Nothing's more relaxing than a day at the arcade, playing some games and eating junk-food.

"Ya. Burger King?"

"Sure, money count?"

"How much did you spend?"

"Fifteen bucks."

"We have…" she took a second to do the math in her head. "three hundred twenty-five dollars."

"That's allot."

"No kidding."

"Let's go spend some then." And we walked out of _Jimmy's Game Palace, _and started toward the BK that was just across the street. Once inside the aroma of hamburgers, fries, bacon and cheese hit my face. I love it here. We stood in line to order.

"Amy,"

"Ya?" she turned her head to look at me.

"Why don't you go find us a seat, I'll order. What do you want?" She stared at the menu for a second and said.

"A Whopper Jr."

"That it?"

"Mike, do you know how bad fast food is for you?"

"Okay, I get the point. Go, get us a booth, their chairs are too hard."

"Alright." She walked away. The fat guy in front of me left with his tray big enough to feed twenty armies breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and midnight snacks for fifteen years! "Can I help you?" said the happy lady at the counter. I noticed she was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Ya, I'll have a whopper jr. and a double stacker."

"The meals or just the sandwiches Percy?" Wait, I'd never told her my name, and if I had it would have been Mike. Something was wrong, but I decided to play along.

"The meals please." After a few minutes of waiting she handed me a tray with my and Annabeth's meals on it.

"Here you go." she said.

"How much?"

"On the house, now why don't you and Annabeth go eat your dinner. You look good together." It took me a second, but I realized.

"Aphrodite?" I whispered, shocked.

"Yes, dear?"

"What…what are you doing here Ma'am?"

"Oh, just checking in on my latest work."

"What do you mean?"

"Go eat dear. Your food will get cold."

"Um, thanks." I said, as I walked away. I got to the tables and started to look for Annabeth. She waved so I could see her, she was sitting at a booth by a window. It had a perfect view of the bridge, and the early sunset. I walked over to the table and set the tray down.

"What do you want for a drink?" I said.

"Um…Diet Coke?"

"Alright." I walked over to the soda fountain and put her cup under the Diet Coke and mine under the Mountain Dew. I grabbed some straws and headed back to the table. Annabeth had already unwrapped both of our burgers and separated the fries. She'd taken a few bites out of her burger and had a couple fries in her hand.

"Here you go, Amy." I said.

"Thank you, Mike." The whole time we ate I wondered why Aphrodite was here.

——————————————

The sunset shown across the ocean, turing it a sharp orange. Me and Annabeth sat on the sidewalk just before the bridge waiting for Mr. Recruiter-man. "Amy, what time does he usually show up?"

"I don't know! What, you think I'm a clock?"

"Well you said you normally see him so…"

"That doesn't mean I know everything about him!"

"Sorry." A few minutes later, we saw a guy with black hair and a leather jacket He looked around his mid-twenties. He was ushering a couple of nervous looking guys. As he walked by us I grabbed his right shoulder and turned him to us.

"Hey," I said, hoping this was the guy.

"What." he said angrily.

"Do we speak to you?"

"About what."

"Joining up."

"Joining what?"

"The fight." His eyes drifted from side to side, making sure no one but me and Annabeth were within earshot.

"Demigods?"

"Ya, but we ain't proud of it."

"You want to join?"

"That's why we're talking." He frowned.

"How did you know you had to talk to _me_? Or even who I was."

"Deductive reasoning." He turned to look at Annabeth. As if I didn't even know what I was talking about.

"Daughter of Athena?" _Time to get into character._ I thought.

"That's what he told me. Am I?" said Annabeth.

"You certainly look like one, but there's an easy test."

"What is it!" Annabeth feigned anxiousness. He thought for a minute.

"You have one minute to give me the answer to this okay?"

"Ya." she said.

"What's 3% of 50•43?"

"Um…" She thought about it for a second "64.5?"

"Yup, daughter of Athena. You'll do us some good, we need more strategists." He turned to me. "What about you?"

"Son of _Hermes._"

"How do you know?"

"I went to _Camp Half-Blood, _Worst two years of my life, although robbing their store before I left was pretty fun."

"What can you contribute?"

"Another skilled blade on your side, and one less on theirs."

"Good point." He backed up and studied us. Then he grunted in approval. "Follow me!" He said to all of us. And we started to cross the bridge.

"Where's your sword? A half-blood that goes cross-country needs a weapon." He said. _Uh, oh. I didn't think of this! I can't use Riptide._

"Broke in half, it's in a junk yard in Vegas." I lied. _Please buy it…_

"Well then, we're gonna need to get you a new one."

"Good,"

"Where's hers?" Annabeth slipped her hand into her jacket and grabbed her knife from her sleeve. Then she took it out.

"Nice dagger. Where'd you get it?"

"I took it from the Camp armory as a back-up, gave it to her when I found her." I told him.

"Found her?"

"She was homeless, wandering around Queens."

"Huh," We stepped back on the ground on the other side if the bridge. I could se the Hesperaids, the Nymphs of the sunset. In the far distance I could see the apple tree, and the big dragon guarding it.

"This way, rooks." said the guy. We followed him down a winding path through a thin line of trees to a beach, and there, sat a cruise ship. _The Princess Andromeda_ was docked with a ramp, a couple of big-muscled guards in greek battle armor stood at the top. Once we reached the top, the guard on the left stopped us.

"Rooks?"

"Yup." said recruiter-man.

"Big catch today."

"Phil, I'll tell you about it later, I need to get them signed up and to their quarters."

"Right" And with that The Recruiter lead us to a big room, just under the maine deck. It had five lights. One in each corner and a big one in the center. Somehow there was grass in here. There was a row of beds along the right wall next to a door, which I assumed was the bathroom."Well, get used to this room. The next couple days you'll be in here getting basic training. Then you'll join your classes in the normal training." said Mr. Recruiter-Dude.

One of the guys he picked up before us spoke. "What's the normal training consist of?"

"Well you have you're daily classes, Sword-fighting, hand-to-hand combat, battle planning, and how to fix yourself during a battle. Then you have the four classes that will rotate, you'll have two of those a day. Let's say on Monday you have armor and weapon forging, which actually when you think about it is providing for the army, not a class. Then you'll have team fighting, which will teach you to cooperate with people in battle. Then on Tuesday you'd have Monster pros and cons, so you can back-up the monsters you fight with in battle. The last one is torture, in those classes you'll torture people to learn how, and get information for Lord Kronos, it's also how you'll be punished if you disobey. Any more questions?"

"Ya," I said horrified at torturing my friends. "What's basic training then?"

"That'll get you basic training for fighting and resisting pain. Alright, we'll see you in the morning so you can pledge yourselves and start your training." With that he walked out. Me and Annabeth chose the two closest beds. I got the first one, and she got the second. I took off my pack and my shirt. _I'll wear these jeans tomorrow,_ I thought._ they'll probably wake us up real early. I don't want to wast energy._

Annabeth came out of the bathroom, she'd taken off her jacket, but traded her jeans for my shorts. Then one of the guys we came in with, he had a buzz cut, said. "You ready for light-out?"

"Put 'em out." I said, then buzz cut guy flicked a switch and we were in the dark. I climbed into bed and pulled the thin blanket over me. I laid on my right side, watching Annabeth's dark figure get into bed. _Well,_ I thought. _we're on. At least the hardest part's over._ But even as I thought it I had a feeling I was wrong.

**Annabeth POV**

"Hey! Get up rooks!" said a gruff angry voice. I rolled, and looked up. A big African-American guy with a flat-top haircut was standing in the middle of the room. He was wearing a white tank-top and camo carharts. And he looked impatient. Kind of like Samuel L. Jackson. With allot of moaning everyone got up. "Get dressed and stand at attention!" He seemed to notice me for the first time. "Except you miss, you change in the bathroom if you want."

"Thanks." I mumbled as I grabbed my gross jeans and my leather jacket. I walked to the bathroom while I did so, I heard the Drill Sergeant yell at the guys for being the saddest bunch of recruits he'd ever seen. After I'd changed I left the bathroom and the man was forcing them to do one-armed push-ups, with their non-dominate hands. He turned to me.

"Get in line! Drop and give me fifty!" He had a strong Texan accent. I'd gotten to eighteen before another man came in.

"Sergeant Sanders! What are you doing." Yelled the new man.

"Training the rooks Lieutenant Miller, sir!"

"Did you, by chance even have them pledge yet?"

"Well, uh…no, sir, I forgot."

"I don't want excuses Sergeant! I want results! That's the same thing you did to the last batch of noobs."

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Now Sanders I want you to get them to pledge, start with pain resistance after, _then _swordsmanship!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Good, I have to go now. Lord Kronos sends his greetings to the rooks." With that Lt. Miller walked out. _The next few days are going to be Hell._ I thought, as I got to thirty-four.

**Like I said, if you want me to add previews to current chapters, tell me, and I'll start doing it on the next chapter. Have a good weekend.**


	10. We become soldiers

**I repaired some parts of the story that don't make sense for example: When I said they were 280 miles North-**_**East**_** of La Paz, Mexico. It was supposed to be North-**_**West.**_** And I sometimes miss a key and hit ' instead of ' so if any part of this story doesn't make sense to you, tell me and I'll fix it. This is a week later by the way. And To .Author: I'm fixing it up, and I've found a better name.**

**Making friends with the enemy**

**Annabeth POV**

"Well rooks," Sgt. Sanders said, pleased with himself. Walking up and down the line we were in, standing at attention. "now that you've completed your basic training you can join your fellow soldiers in actual training." He reached the end of our line, by Tim, the one with the buzz cut. To Tim's left was John, the one who'd asked what normal training was going to be like, a week ago. To _his _left was Leonard, the third one of the guys we'd joined up with, on his left was me, then Percy. Leonard was a son of Apollo, John and Tim were sons of Ares. "When you came in here," The Drill Sergeant continued. "you were weak, you were spineless wimps, when you leave this room, you will be acknowledged as full members of the Titan army. When you leave here you will be soldiers. Now get going!" The sergeant ordered. We turned and marched out the door without breaking formation. _Gods this is annoying._ I thought, on our way up the stairs. _We've been here a week and we haven't discovered anything except that the basic training here is very intense._

The past week had consisted of nothing but pain, sleeping, eating and more pain. But we were better for it. I'd learned a few new tricks with my knife, and they'd forged a brand new sword just for Percy. It was strapped to his side. The sheath read the sword's name, _Mutilator._ A typical name for a sword. An evil sword, that is. The night had a crisp feel tonight. Or maybe that's just because I hadn't been outside in a week. I heard Percy inhale deeply, I was pretty sure he was happier than the rest of us to be back outside that room. The Sergeant had taken an immediate dislike to him, and so he was pushed harder than the others. He had to do twenty extra push-ups every time he talked, the sarge had a few places on Percy he really liked to kick. When pain resistance came around the Sergeant started beating him, badly. Worse than us. He couldn't train for the whole day after (And it was only the first day!). He still had a black eye and a limp on his right leg. The recruiter met us at the top of the stairs.

"Follow me to your rooms." He led us down a few halls and up a set of stairs. Then we stopped. "Which one of you is Tim?" Tim stepped forward shyly. "You are going to be paired with…" he looked at his clipboard. "Leonard, you're room is right there." He pointed a the door behind himself. They looked at eachother, mildly surprised. Being brothers with John, we'd thought that they'd be roommates. "Alright, Amy?" I stepped forward. "You'll be staying in your own room, for obvious reasons. It's right there." He pointed to the door on his back left. "And that leaves…Mike and John, you got that room." He pointed to the one on his back right. Percy looked uncomfortable, I guess he hoped we'd get paired. This would only make the quest harder.

"Um…Sir?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Is there any reason why we haven't been paired up with anyone else on the ship?"

"Everyone else already has a roommate."

"Oh…" I said, surprised.

"You'd better unpack and get to bed, your classes start at 7:30 tomorrow, and it's…" He checked his watch. "10:30. Breakfast is at 7:00 so get some sleep." After we all said goodnight we headed to our rooms, but I held Percy back.

"Get back out here the second he falls asleep. We've got some work to do. And give me some clothes and my cap, we're going to have to get some clothes for me tomorrow." He handed me the clothes I'd borrowed on the ship and my cap and said.

"What if I can't get out?"

"You'd better." With that I turned and walked into my room. Now, I've only stayed on a cruise ship once, and it was this same ship. The room was like a hotel room, in every way. There was a bathroom on the immediate right. Stocked with soap, and shampoo, even conditioner. To the immediate left was a counter with on of those mini-fridges. Down a little more on the left was a LCD T.V. and on the right, right out front of the T.V. were two queen sized beds.

"Wow." I said, as I put the clothes on the nearest bed. "So, this is it."

———————————–

I was watching a documentary on African Elephants when I heard a soft knock on the door. I looked at my watch, 11:00. _It didn't take John long to go to la-la land._ I thought. I grabbed my cap, and walked over to the door. As I pulled it open I put my cap on. Percy looked in, still in the clothes he wore earlier. I wasn't, I was wearing the clothes he'd loaned me for sleeping in, hence the hat. He looked confused. I snuck around behind him. "I'm right here." I said, over his shoulder. Then I had to cover his mouth as he yelled.

"Ho—" The rest was muffled by my hand.

"Shhh…Seaweed Brain." I whispered.

"If you _ever _do that again, I'll shave your head while you sleep and steal all your books."

"Let's just go. Follow me!" I whispered. I started to creep down the hall. I few seconds later I turned to see if he was there, only to see him halfway down the hall, _the other way._ _Dammit, Seaweed Brain! Are you too freaking proud to admit you have no idea where I am? _I started towards Percy.

"Next time, tell me if you don't know which way!" I whispered.

"Sorry. The other way?"

"Well it _is _a two way hall, what do you think Mr. Smart?"

"The other way."

"Congratulations."

"You don't have to be so mean about it…"

"I'm _not _mean!"

"Well then, what do you call it?"

"…Criticism."

"Let's just go."

"Fine." I grabbed his had so he wouldn't get lost, his face tinted red. We took off down the hall. Took a left, another left, right, left, down the stairs, and through a door, and came out on the main deck. It was sprinkling out now. But it was light enough. We walked around a corner where I heard voices. I whispered in Percy's ear so low, even I could barley hear it.

"Stay here. Don't move, I'll be right back." I didn't wait for a reply, I let go of his hand and slipped the corner. Sergeant Sanders and the Recruiter were standing there. Deep in conversation.

"—that Mike kid, or the girl." The Sergeant said.

"Why would that be?"

"How again, did you say they met you?"

"They were standing out front of the bridge. Grabbed me when I went by."

"How did they know it was you?"

"Mike said they'd used 'deductive reasoning.' Which I'm taking to mean the daughter of Athena has seen me go through before. Mike doesn't seem smart enough to deduce that, probably thought I was a tourist or something."

"Well, I don't like it. They could be spies, think about it. They knew who you were, they knew where _we_ are, and they already knew their parentage."

"Well Mike went to that cursed camp, so he probably knew who he was, probably seen enough children of Athena to decide who Amy was."

"I still don't like it. They just randomly meet eachother on his way here? He must be lying about _something._"

"Well, even if they are spies. They're on a ship full of soldiers and monsters, what could they possibly do?"

"Point taken, I have to get back up to the crows nest though, my watch started twenty minutes ago. General Castellan is gonna be pissed if he finds out I was late." _Oh my gods! Luke is the General!_

"Ya, just…consider being nice to Mike 'n Amy okay? They're good kids, least, far as _I _know."

"Heh, heh, right, I'll think about it."

"Thanks, I gotta go pull curfew duty now. I hate going into the rooms 'o those kids while they're sleepin', feels wrong."

"Right, check the rooks first, usually they're the ones that're the most…adventurous. And maybe we'll find out if those two _are_ spies."

"You think _everyone's _a spy."

"See ya."

"Ya, you to." The last two sentences I'd been running around the corner, grabbed Percy who, by the looks of it, had gotten the shock of his life…being grabbed by an invisible person. And we started running back to the rooms. I ran into my room ripped of my hat and jumped on my bed, jerked open the covers and shoved myself in. A few minutes later the recruiter came in. He looked at me, and decided I must be sleeping, and left. _We need to be more careful, _I thought. _or we'll end up dead before we even get the info we need._

————————————

The bell rang loudly through the PA system. I woke up slowly, the bell still ringing in my head. I looked at the clock I had on my wall over my T.V. 6:45! _Well, _I thought. _Breakfast is at 7:00, maybe they want us to have time to get ready. _I ran to the bathroom, I needed a shower. As I took my shower my thoughts drifted to the conversation I'd overheard last night. We hadn't been here two weeks and we were already suspected spies. Hopefully, we could get some intel before we got caught. A few minutes later I realized my thoughts had changed to Percy. I realized how hard this quest would've been if he'd decided to stay. He'd said he didn't like it…so why come? I didn't understand, and being a child of Athena, that's _not_ something I like. I made a mental note to ask him later as I got dressed. I'd been wearing the same ratty disgusting jeans for around two weeks now, it was time I got (at the very least) some new pants. I strapped on my knife, and headed off to breakfast.

Once I'd gotten through the buffet line (thank the gods the monsters had a different one now!) I saw Percy sitting at a table talking with John. I walked over and sat next Percy. "So," I said. "what's our first class?"

"Well," Percy said, looking at his schedule. We'd found out all of us 'rooks' would share the same classes. "looks like hand-to-hand combat."


	11. Guess who

**If it seems like I update at weird times, like I said I live in Maine, the site goes by PST not mine. Add three hours to the times you have and you'll have the time I updated.**

**Guess who**

**Percy POV**

Annabeth came out of nowhere and sat _right next to me._ "So," she said, not even bothering to say: hi. "what's our first class?" I looked at the first class on the schedule.

"Well," I said "it looks like hand-to-hand combat."

"Then?" she said as she started eating her scrambled eggs and sausage.

"Uh…" I looked again. "sword fighting. Then First-aid, then battle planning, a free period, Lunch, and wow…"

"What?"

"After-noon classes are two hours long."

"How long are morning?"

"An hour and a half. The free one's just an hour though."

"That means lunch is at exactly noon."

"Ya, after lunch is, weapon forging, then team fighting."

"This is going to be a long couple of weeks."

"Why a long _couple?_" said John. _Uh-oh, think fast!_

"…Just 'till we get used to it." Annabeth saved herself.

"Oh, ya." he said, going back to his food.

"Hey, Amy."

"Ya?"

"I need to ask you something…in private."

"Okay, whoa…what is it?" she said as I dragged her to an unoccupied table.

"What happened last night?"

"What do you mean."

"I mean, what did you hear that made you so scared?"

"We're already suspected." _Son of a—_

"Are you serious," I looked around. "by who!"

"Sgt. Sanders."

"Figures. He hates me."

"No, he thinks that it's suspicious that we 'met' at Queens, and we 'knew' who the recruiter was."

"Is anyone taking him seriously?"

"Not that I know of but…"

"We should still be careful." I said finishing her sentence.

"Ya. Alright, let's go…we're attracting attention." Sure enough there were people staring at us, murmuring. From what I was hearing, we were at some guy named Big Ted's table. Now, from my experiences at other schools I knew that: 1. Anyone that has there own table is probably feared by everybody. 2. Anyone with Big out front of their name was probably not someone you'd want to make angry. Sure enough, a big guy with blond hair, a _very _angry expression, so many muscles he made the Minotaur look like a push-over, blue-jeans and a black skull and cross-bones T-shirt was plowing his way toward us. He looked about my age, a few inches taller maybe.

"Uh, Amy? Get out of here."

"What I'm not gonna let him—"

"Just go! I know how to deal with guys like this!" She huffed and walked away reluctantly. _Better reluctant than breathing through a tube. _I thought. In truth I didn't actually have a plan, but I didn't want Annabeth to get hurt. I knew he'd follow us if we _both _left, so I told her to leave. _I not gonna let her get hurt. _I thought. Big Ted was now right out front of me. Glaring at me like I'd just killed his mom.

"What were you doing at my table?" He said angrily."

"Just talking for a second."

"Why didn't you talk at your own?"

"Didn't want to bonehead."

"You're _begging_ me to beat you and your girlfriend to a pulp."

"She's not my girlfriend, but if you touch her…"

"You'll what, kiss my boot as I kick your head off?"

"If you think you're so good, prove it." I probably should've kept my big mouth shut, but you have no idea how mad this guy was making me.

"Ha! Do you know your messing with a son of Ares. I never loose!"

"I've beaten—excellent fighters, fighters that would make you run away screaming for mommy." I couldn't say that I've beaten Ares, or I'd probably my cover.

"Do you really want to pick this fight?"

"I never picked, your the one with the big mouth." I saw his right arm pump back, ready to punch my head off. Just as his fist would've destroyed my face I leaned back and watched his fist go by. Then I put my foot out front of his leg, remembering something I'd been taught at camp. Most muscley people have poor balance. He fell like an oak. I heard a _crash _as he fell into his beloved table and broke through it. But I was too busy walking over to my friends. Halfway there Big Ted clotheslined me so hard from the back, I met the floor in a split-second. _Owwww. _Was my only thought, besides surprise. I picked myself up off the floor, and went to go kick the crap out of Ted, but Annabeth got in my way. "No," She said. "don't get yourself hurt."

"What you think I'll loose?" I said, offended my best friend thought I'd loose against Ted the Troll.

"No, I just mean…you might get into trouble."

"No, I'm going to fight him." She grabbed my head and looked me right in the eyes, her gray ones piercing mine.

"Don't do it, if not for you, than for _me._"

"Fine," I growled, unhappy I couldn't continue my fight. "for you, I'll stop."

"Thank you. Now let's go finish our breakfasts." On out way back, I looked behind me, to see Big Ted glaring at me angrily.

"I'm going to kill you." He mouthed. _Not before I kill you._ I thought.

————————————

"Alright class," Said Instructor Brown, a tall, muscular man with a handle-bar mustache wearing, jeans and a John Cena T-shirt. "we got five rooks so I wont be able to help you out for a few classes while I get 'em up to speed. You're going to finish you're work on the Panther take-down today. Get going. Rooks, come with me." He led us to a spot about a dozed or so feet away from the rest of the class. Hand-to-hand combat class took place in the extra large basketball court. It was extra large because (I have no idea how.) they got the bleachers and hoops out. "Alright, your basic training should've included a real short course on basic kicking, punching, and grappling. So we're going to start with snap-kicks."

After that long and hard class was over it was time for sword practice where I got a huge surprise. As we walked off _The Princess Andromeda _to the class that was supposed to take place in a field I saw a figure in the distance with a shining blade. I couldn't make out the figure but something seemed familiar about him. Me, Annabeth and John walked over together, who I saw standing in the field was more surprising than the fact he didn't recognize us instantly. I pulled Annabeth close and whispered in her ear. "Luke." Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Who's Luke?" asked John.

"Huh? What?" I said.

"You just said Luke."

"No, I said I've gotta puke, I'm not used to being on a ship so long." He looked at me quizzically.

"Why would you pull her close to say _that?_"

"I…have issues with it, would you tell everyone if _you _had to barf?"

"No but—"

"I told her so she could tell the teacher. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go loose my breakfast."

"See ya." said John and Annabeth, as I walked away. I was going to go lean over the dock, to make it look like I was throwing up.

**John POV**

Mike rejoined just after the instructor, General Luke was showing us a new move the rest of the class would be trying while we rooks learned the moves they already knew. He stood next to Amy, old habits are hard to break I guess. I wondered what it would be like to travel cross country with nobody but a homeless girl. It didn't seem too fun, but apparently he grew used to it. He was, after all standing right next to her. The General led us over to the side were he could still see the class, but train us too. The Luke showed us the first move he'd taught the others, the Viper beheading strike. Then he paired us up. Naturally I got paired with my brother Tim. Mike with Amy, and Leonard got the General himself. We had to work on blocking it, and doing it. Luke had said he had the rest of the class practice a move for two or three classes, but we had to go fast. So we'd be doing one move a class. Mike and Amy were off twenty feet to my left, moving so swift and fast you'd think they were dancing. "Come on brother, are we going to train? Or should I just do it to you for real?" My brother joked.

"Alright, let's fight then." And with that we started practicing, moving fast and hard. Every strike hit the blade of our swords, then just as quickly moved for the next. Pretty soon we'd mastered it. Leonard was sweating a pool to my right, with Luke. _He's never been good with a blade._ I thought.

"Look at those jokers." Tim said, pointing to Mike and Amy. "They think they're so good. Just for getting here from New York."

"That's still an amazing feat Tim." I said.

"I bet I could beat them both."

"Ya? Put up, or shut up." He scowled at me. Then walked over to Mike and challenged him. Naturally he said no, he was only going to practice with Amy. Who still needed work on it. And, of course, as any normal person would do, Amy got defensive and said something to Mike. Mike frowned, and said something. It looked like 'Good luck'. Then Amy turned and started to spar with Tim. Now when I say spar, I don't mean they practiced the move they were supposed to. They started to actually _fight._ _This wont end well. _I thought, as I jogged over to watch.

Amy and Tim were fighting like I'd never seen. It looked like they'd choreographed it, when one would strike it would be blocked instantly. But I had a feeling Amy would win, after all, her mom's the goddess of wisdom _and _battle. She fights with a strategy. As soon as I'd decided who'd win Amy made her move. Time went for an overhead swipe and Amy knocked it aside with her dagger and then kicked him in the stomach. Tim fell to the ground. Amy kneeled down and put her blade to his throat. "Girls are _not _inferior, and just because your daddy's the war god doesn't make you a good fighter." she said, then bulled the blade away. My brother grunted angrily, he had a murderous look on his face. He rolled forward and brought his sword up, I could see where this was going. He was going to shove it into her spine! While she was walking away! I'd sheathed my sword to watch the match so I couldn't use that, so I did the stupidest the ever. I grabbed the blade with my bare hands. "Ahh." I grunted as the blade bit through my flesh and blood seeped out. Amy spun around her eyes widened.

"Tim what were you _thinking!_" I yelled

"Nobody beats _me!_" He said pushing harder. The blade sank deeper into my fingers. I heard a sword unsheathe and saw a blade at my brother's throat.

"Your lucky I don't kill you." Mike hissed angrily. I could tell he was angry as you can get and beyond. "Now drop your sword, or I _will._"

"Mike don't! He was just mad!" said Amy.

"Mad or not, he would have killed you. A sword through the spine isn't something you can walk off Amy!" I said.

"Hey! What the Hell is going on over there!" I heard Luke yell, as he walked over in the corned of my eye.

"Sir, my brother was about to murder Amy." The General looked at the blade my brother was still pushing into me.

"Drop the damn blade soldier. Not you Mike, keep it up near his neck."

"I'd be happy to." Mike said. My bother pulled the blade out of my hands causing major cuts to my hands.

"OWW!" I couldn't help but yell. Luke sighed and pulled some gauss out of his pocket.

"Here use this or you'll bleed out." He tossed me the roll. As I was wrapping my hands he said. "Now, why the _Hell _were you going to kill your brother Tim?"

"Not me," I said. "Amy."

"What! Tim is this true!"

"Nobody beats _me._" Was all my selfish brother said.

"What were you doing out of pairs anyway!"

"He tried to challenge them, sir. He was jealous so he went to try to beat them. He lost to Amy and he tried to kill her."

"Normally I'd have a soldier killed for doing that, but seeming how he didn't, I can't. But The next time you attempt something like that I _will_. Is that clear!"

"Yes sir." Mumbled Tim.

"What?"

"I said, YES SIR!"

"Good, now keep practicing." As he walked away I heard him mumble something about rooks being insane.

"Hey, John." Mike said.

"Ya?"

"I wanted to know…why did you really save Amy." I smiled.

"That's what friends do."

**Percy POV**

I was congratulating Annabeth on her victory when I heard someone grunt in pain. I looked behind her and she turned around. _What the f—_

"Tim what were you _thinking!_" John yelled, his hands were holding Tim's blade which was about to go right though Annabeth!

"Nobody beats _me!_" He said. I unsheathed my sword and put it at Tim's throat.

"Your lucky I don't kill you." I hissed angrily. I was angrier than I'd ever thought possible, this guy almost killed Annabeth! "Now drop your sword, or I _will._"

"Mike don't! He was just mad!" said Annabeth. I couldn't believe she was defending him!

"Mad or not, he would have killed you. A sword through the spine isn't something you can walk off Amy!" John said.

"Hey! What the Hell is going on over there!" I heard Luke yell, as he walked over in the corned of my eye.

"Sir, my brother was about to murder Amy." The traitor looked at the blade Tim was still pushing into John.

"Drop the damn blade soldier. Not you Mike, keep it up near his neck."

"I'd be happy to." I said. John's bother pulled the blade out of his hands causing major cuts to them.

"OWW!" he yelled. Luke sighed and pulled some gauss out of his pocket.

"Here use this or you'll bleed out." He tossed him the roll. Then said. "Now, why the _Hell _were you going to kill your brother Tim?"

"Not me," John said. "Amy."

"What! Tim is this true!"

"Nobody beats _me._" I resisted the urge to run him through. Gods this guy was pissing me off!

"What were you doing out of pairs anyway!"

"He tried to challenge them, sir. He was jealous so he went to try to beat them. He lost to Amy and he tried to kill her."

"Normally I'd have a soldier killed for doing that, but seeming how he didn't, I can't. But The next time you attempt something like that I _will_. Is that clear!"

"Yes sir." Mumbled Tim.

"What?"

"I said, YES SIR!"

"Good, now keep practicing." He walked away.

"Hey, John." I said.

"Ya?"

"I wanted to know…why did you really save Amy." I smiled.

"That's what friends do."

"Well then, we must be friends." I laughed as he walked away. Then Me and Annabeth continued practicing. Every moment with her I now was glad I had.


	12. Dejavu

**Sorry I haven't updated for awhile, minor writer's block…I have the basic storyline down I just need the rest. That's why it took so long to write this. I'm sorry if I mess something up, like forgetting quotation marks or put the wrong names down. I write allot of this stuff at late night, so I always forget to read it over and check stuff. Lastly, some of you may be wondering why I capitalize Hell…it's because (Although it's **_**defiantly **_**not a place you'd wanna go.) it's still a place, and you capitalize places.**

**Deja-vu**

**Annabeth POV**

It's been three days since my near-death experience, and Percy was still treating me like royalty. I know he's glad I'm not dead, but you'd think he would have stopped by now. I guess he's just relived I'm alive. Needless to say, John's now one of our friends. Tim's been avoiding us, only being near us when we're paired up for classes. After the incident that day I'd managed persuade Percy that we shouldn't go on any night wanderings for info. At least not for a few days. I looked at Percy, he was right next to me. We were walking back to our rooms to go to bed. Percy, me, and John. I was wearing something _other_ than my destroyed jeans (Thank the gods!) and greasy Harley Davidson T-shirt. My new jeans that Percy bought me that morning, and a black T-shirt with an image of an owl killing a spider, and (of course.) my leather jacket. The magic box of supplies in my back pocket.

We arrived at Percy and John's door and John went in, but I held Percy back. "We need to start thinking about getting our info and getting outta here." I said, he nodded once and said.

"Right, meet me out here in an hour…maybe more or less, depending on when John falls asleep."

"Okay." I walked into my room and sat on my bed, then flicked on the T.V. The Discovery channel was doing a special on architecture over the centuries, and I was _not _going to miss it.

**Percy POV**

"So, why do ya halfta leave?" John said, as I walked into the room. He was sitting on his bed, the one on the right, closest to the door. _Not good! _I thought.

"I don't have to leave. Why would I leave?"

"I heard you and Amy talking…sorry. What's this info you need?"

"Nothing…" _Have to think of something fast! _" just a prank we're playing on someone."

"No…I don't think so…Wait…you're…you're spies aren't you!"

"No…why would you say that?"

"Well, this is _real _good luck for me! I've been wanting out since the first torture class!"

"You…you did?" I said, relived he wasn't going to turn us in.

"Ya! So what did you 'n Amy come here to do then?"

"We…need to find out who the spies are at camp…"

"Well…I guess I can't help you there. Just promise me you'll take me with you when it's time to leave, okay?"

"Sure, I'm…gonna meet Amy outside in an hour. We're going to find out tonight."

"Good, maybe we can get the Hell outta here tonight too."

"Sounds like a plan."

"And a damn good one at that." He laughed.

———————————

I knocked on the metal door, and Annabeth answered. "Ready?" I asked. She nodded once and put her cap on. "Wait," I said. She took her cap back off.

"What?"

"John heard us talking. He wants to leave with us."

"Mike." She groaned. "Did you tell him we're spies?"

"He kinda figured that out on his own…"

"Well, at least we weren't compromised. Leave it to you to make thing more complicated."

"Hey!"

"Let's go." She put her cap back on and grabbed my hand. Then proceeded to drag me down the hallway. We headed strait to the Captains Quarters, where they would be most likely keep records on the war. Stuff like battle plans, spies, and weapon technology. Annabeth managed to open the door with her knife and allot of words I'm not going to repeat. The room was the size of an eighteen wheeler's trailer. There were computers along the walls each of them running the same 'Kronos kicks ass' screen saver.

"Which one?" I asked, as Annabeth took off her hat.

"I don't know! Pick one."

"_You_ don't know?" I teased, she blushed.

"Shut up and help me!" She went to the nearest computer and pressed a button on the keyboard, ending the screensaver. I walked over and looked over her shoulder. There was four folders on the desktop. She clicked on one, and the folder popped up. Then she clicked on a document and a bunch of photos and words popped up. "Oh my gods…" she gasped

"What?"

"These people are spies!"

"All of them?"

"Yes!" I looked at the list of traitors. Travis Stoll, Michael (One of Annabeth's half-brothers), Jim from the Hermes cabin, Zach from Ares, Pete from Demeter, and a girl from Hermes.

"I can't believe this!" I said, angry because I'd thought there was only _one _spy.

"I can't believe you were stupid enough to think we left this room unguarded." Said a cold voice. We spun around, Luke was standing in the doorway.

"General…we were just…uhhh…" Annabeth said

"Save it, come with me."

"Where." I said, the bastard smiled.

"It's time the spies met Lord Kronos." I reached to grab my sword. "I wouldn't advise that, Mike, if that's your real name. You're on a ship with over a thousand soldiers and you think you can _fight _you way out? I can only think of a handful of people that can think of doing that. Now side-by-side, and off we go!" A few minutes of repeatedly being poked by Luke's new sword, we arrived at the cabin. Kronos was standing by the wheel. I waited for time to turn to liquid, like it always does around him, but it didn't. _Weird._ I thought.

"Sir, these two are spies."

"They aren't who they say they are either. Did you really think dying your hair and acting differently would fool _me?_" He waved his hand over us, I saw Annabeth's hair go back to it's normal (and better!) honey blond, her jacket disappeared. I has a feeling mine was back to normal too. Luke's eyes widened, then he said.

"Annabeth? Why'd you do this? We could've used you! Now…"

"Shut up Luke!" I said. "She's already confused!"

"About what?"

"You! She always thinks there's a chance to bring you back!"

"Shut up and kill them, Luke." Said Kronos. The _good _thing about being discovered? I could use Riptide. I uncapped my sword and grabbed Annabeth. Hopefully whatever was causing time _not _to go crazy would last a little longer. We ran out the door and around a corner and to the edge of the ship, it'd started raining badly. An alarm started ringing.

"Jump!" I told Annabeth.

"Are you CRAZY!"

"Just like last time!" I said as I drove Riptide through the stomach of a _dracanae _**(A/N: Did I spell that right?)**.

"The water's too shallow!"

"FINE! To the ramp!" We ran to the ramp, on the way I noticed Kronos's army was moving pretty darn slow. Like his time powers were working in reverse. But it only lasted for about a second. Then they were moving full speed. John ran around a corner yelling loudly with my backpack on his shoulders. Once off the ramp we sprinted for the forest line. Running through the forest in the dark is _not _something I recommend, I was just glad the full moon gave us some light. We arrived in a circular clearing about two miles into the woods.

"Should we camp out here?" Asked John.

"Well, if we aren't we can at least rest here." I decided. I heard something growl behind the tree-line. "I think we have company." I said. Like clockwork, eight scorpions just like the ones Daedalus had us fight a few months ago encircled us from all directions.

**John POV**

I tossed Mike his backpack and he put it on. "This might be it," I said. "only a miracle can help us _now._" One of the scorpions snarled at Amy, then brought it's tail down in a flash. She managed to knock the stinger away with her forearm but I heard a sickening _crack!_

"No!" Yelled Mike and he charged the same one. I didn't see anymore thought because two of the scorpions became interested in me. One of them lunged with its tail, the other advanced with its pincers. I drew my sword. The stinger ricocheted off my blade and I spun around and sliced off the edge of the other's left claw. It roared, and tried with its tail. I dove to the right of it, under its friend. The one I was under tried to stomp my into dust. I rolled and shoved my blade into its stomach, another roar and it disintegrated. I looked over at Mike and Amy, they were fighting six at once. Amy had a broken left arm but she was still holding her own. Mike was limping badly and his right leg had a nasty gash on the shin. Both were cut up and bruised pretty badly, and I knew they wouldn't last much longer. I, on the other hand could last longer. I was born to fight. "Mike!" I yelled as I knocked the dead scorpion's friend's stinger to the side.

"What!" he managed through his non-stop fighting. Amy got knocked to the side and crumpled, I could tell she was knocked out.

"You and Amy get outta here! I can take 'em!"

"No way! We all fight, or no one fights!"

"Get Amy outta here then!" He turned around, and saw Amy laying on the ground just about to be crushed by the claws of a scorpion.

"NO!" He yelled so loud I could swear they could here him in Italy. He charged at the scorpion stabbing the one that was in his way right between the eyes. My scorpion turned to see what was so loud and I stabbed it(No points for guessing _where!_). It disintegrated, yellow sand billowed everywhere. I looked back over a Mike, who was dragging Amy over to the tree line. "Come on!" He yelled to me.

"I can't! They'll follow us! Just get to safety! I'll get rid of them!" He looked at me, then kept dragging Amy.

"I'm gonna find some shelter! Come find us when you're done!"

"Go!" Amy's feet disappeared behind the trees and a couple of the scorpions started to follow. "Hey!" I yelled, they remembered me and turned. _Great, _I thought. _five to one. _A few seconds later I was surrounded. I knew I wasn't going to last long, but maybe I could last long enough to let Mike and Amy escape. One of them lunged and I knocked the stinger aside, another tried to bite me and I jumped to the side and the claw scraped my ribs. I winced and another used it as an opportunity and the next thing I knew I was on my back on the ground. _This is it, _I thought. _please let it be quick. _I saw my life flash before my eyes. Arguments with my mom, the cruel third grade teacher, that girl I never got the guts to ask out, cursing the gods, joining Kronos. I heard a wolf howl, _I don't remember that…_I thought. Then I realized that it was real, a real wolf was howling. I looked over at where I heard it howling and at the forest line to my right I saw two figures approaching. On the right a tall man, on the left some kind of animal, the wolf I guess. The scorpions weren't moving, like they were stunned. "Get up." said the gruff voice of the man. He reached out a hand and I took it, then he hauled me up. _He's a lot stronger than he looks. _I thought.

"Who're you?" I asked, he looked at the scorpions and said.

"Not enough time, they'll only be stunned for another few seconds." He looked at the wolf. "Gunner, take him back to the ship." The wolf looked at him, and whined. Then the man said. "At the bridge, and stay out of site. They still can't know we're following them. But I'll check on them after I'm done with these, and every hour if you want me to." The wolf yipped, he looked at me. "We need you to stay on the ship."

"To be a spy?" I guessed.

"Yes, Gunner here'll take you back."

"The wolf?" He nodded.

"Follow him, do what he does."

"Meaning?"

"Run if he runs, sneak if he sneaks. That kind of stuff. Now go, the scorpions'll be up soon." He drew his sword which he kept sheathed on his back, the blade was single edged, with red spine-like needles erupting out of the side that wasn't bladed, it looked a little like fire, because they weren't even. He was wearing leather armor, with a red sash around his waist, his shoulder-length black hair and goatee made him look crazy. The center of his leather breast plate had a shiny golden medallion embedded in it right over the end of his sternum. "Go!" He said as he turned to face the scorpions. The wolf, Gunner, I guess, barked and loped to the tree line and turned to wait for me. I jogged after him and we started running towards the last place I wanted to go. I hoped my friends had gotten away. I could hear the mysterious goatee guy fighting the five scorpions I'd just ran away from.

**Percy POV**

_Gods, please let her be okay! _I thought as I dragged Annabeth into the cave I'd found. I managed to get her halfway into the cave and then I collapsed. My eyes were stinging, I'd started crying earlier. Annabeth was gravely injured and it was _my _fault. I'd vowed I wouldn't let her get hurt and here she was, knocked out with a broken arm, cut-up and bloody, blood matted in her hair. I sat down on the ground next to her, tears running down my cheeks. I looked outside at the forest, I could hear yelling and sword clashing with the scorpions. I hoped John was okay. I looked back at Annabeth, and felt extreme deja-vu. I'd seen this before. _No…NO! _I thought, the very thing I'd sworn wouldn't happen…Annabeth looked just like she did in the dream. Anger boiled in the pit of my stomach, escaping in a low growl that only lasted for a few seconds before I gained control over it. This would _never, ever _happen again. A fly will never so much as land on her, she's under my permanent protection. The noises of fighting stopped in the distance, someone let loose a victory yell, but it wasn't John. _Great, _I thought. _John's dead, and somebody's probably going to be coming after us. _I stayed awake the whole night, but the only thing I saw was the occasional passing wolf.

**Crazy Goatee Guy POV**

The kids were safe, I'd just checked on them a few minutes ago. I loped over to my spot I'd made to sleep on by the river. The smell of blood was thick in the air. I dropped my tail in relaxation and drove my muzzle into a hole, _rabbit—dinner. _I thought. I dug a small hole out front of the burrow, then howled into it. The rabbit would think I was far away, so the idiot came out. I pounced. Fresh kill, I walked over to my bed of leaves I'd made earlier, in my human form, and started to eat.

As you may have guessed, I'm a wolf. But, not necessarily, my dad, Zurvan, god of time (he took over for Kronos), creator of the canine species and Martial Arts, gave me a gift four-hundred years ago for being his first son to live for over two-thousand years. I can turn into a wolf, awesome huh? I've _always _been able to communicate with canines, but becoming one is a million times better. How is it possible to live two-thousand-four-hundred years? If you're a son of Zurvan you age till you reach your peak physical condition, then you stop. I can die any other way possible, except old age.

**FlashBack Start**

_Hunting in the Maine woods is actual work, Deer Hunting season wouldn't start for another few weeks but, somewhat ironically, I'm on Artemis's good side. So I'm allowed to hunt whenever I want. I'd been tracking a nice twelve point buck all day through the swamps and woods. Now was my chance, I raised my 1997 3o6 rifle, no scope, I prefer open sights. Just as I was about to pull the trigger Chiron appeared in an Iris-Message out front of me. "Prince! I need you too do something." He shouted. The buck freaked out and ran away fast as lightning._

"_Dammit Chiron! It couldn't have waited three more seconds!" He seemed to realize what he'd just done._

"_Sorry, but it's important you do this."_

"_What." I groaned._

"_I need you to follow two of my campers, without being seen, and give them back-up incase it's needed."_

"_Chiron? Are you okay? You're not supposed to have any help on quests."_

"_I know. But this is more dangerous than any other quest before."_

"_Okay then, why me? Why don't you have another camper do it?"_

"_Because my father," He winced. "only you can counter-act his time abilities."_

"_Listen, why don't you have Farah go? She's lived just as long as I have, and being Artemis's chosen one she'll be able to use a bow. I just have my sword."_

"_You have your wolves, almost three-thousand years of combat expertise, and the ability to manipulate time. And Farah's off doing something off the coast of Persia."_

"_Alright Chiron, I guess I ain't gonna win this argument. I'll get Gunner, the best wolf I've raised in a millennia and we'll go to…where exactly?"_

"_San Francisco, Mt. Tamalpias. Look for a big white cruise ship."_

"_Who'm I protecting?"_

"_Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase."_

"_Annabeth? The one from last time I visited?"_

"_Yes. She'll look a little different than last time, but I have no doubt you'll recognize her. You are good with faces."_

"_Ya," I laughed. "You'd think living this long would've made me worse with faces. When and how are they getting there?"_

"_By ship. They should be there within three or four weeks."_

"_Alright, just let me get Gunny and we'll hop in the truck 'n head down."_

"_Good luck."_

"_Heh, when you've gone through what I have you'd know there's no such thing as luck unless you make it for yourself."_

**FlashBack End**

I couldn't fall asleep so I left to got check on them again. He was still crying over her. I sat at the entrance for awhile. Annabeth looked like a blown up version from eight years ago, I remembered the day well. After all, it was I that taught her and Luke how to fight. Funny, all of the men that I've trained, two for two have joined the Titans. Only she hasn't.

**FlashBack Start**

_Thunder rolled, and lightning struck the girl that was fighting monsters alone at the top of the hill. I was running as fast as I could but I wasn't fast enough. You try running from the Big House to that hill. When the dust cleared a huge Pine tree stood where the girl was. I looked at the sky, Lord Zeus had only done that twice before, that girl must have been one of his favorites, even Hercules didn't Pine treeized. I saw a small girl and a teenage boy, plus the satyr, Grover, I think his name was, walking away from the hill. I could hear the young girl's sobs. I ran up to them, the boy had tears down his cheeks too. "What the Hell's going on here!" I said. The boy looked at me and said._

"_One of our friends just got turned into a Pine, what do you _think _is going on!"_

"_Oh, Prince! Please! Mr. D's going to kill me! You need…rewind!" whined the satyr_

"_I can't there's no way I could've made it. Was that her?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Well, worry about the drunk later. Right now we've got these two to take care of."_

"_Yes, sir."_

"_You don't need to call me sir."_

"_But you're a prince."_

"_Whatever." I looked at the blubbering girl and knelt down to her eye level. "Hey," I said in(hopefully.) a calming voice. "what's your name?" The little girl looked up, tears still sliding down her face, but she'd stopped crying._

"_Annabeth."_

"_Annabeth, huh? Whose your friend?"_

"_Luke."_

"_Are you okay, Annabeth?"_

"_Ya, where's Thalia?" I looked over at Grover who mouthed 'Tree'._

"_Annabeth, come with me, I…I've got to tell you something."_

"_Uh-huh."_

"_Grover, she'll be spending the night in my dojo. Luke you can too if you want."_

"_Nah, I'll just…" He looked back at the new tree._

"_Alright then, come with me, Annabeth." I took her hand and we started towards the woods, towards my hidden dojo/cabin._

**FlashBack End**

That was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Telling a sever year-old her friend is dead. I remembered how she'd burst into more tears and ran into the woods, I'd spent four hours looking for her. Now this same little girl, was unconscious out front of me. Being cried over by a true friend. Hopefully Kronos didn't know how much he cared, or Percy'd be in for one Hell of a ride. As I walked back I wondered if Annabeth knew how important they were to this war. For that was written in the timeline, and in the wise words of Kaileena, 'What is written in the timeline, cannot be changed.'

**Okay if you need to see pictures of 1. the prince aka: Crazy Goatee guy 2. His sword or 3. the kind of wolves that are in this story, go to my profile and I'll have links up, hopefully by this after-noon.**** ATTENTION TO .Author I need to talk to you, you know what this is about (My last PM) I need you to tell me what you think about You know who. So I can adjust anything, and I told you I found a good name.**


	13. I can't tell you

**Sorry if my spelling's wrong from here out. My spell-check's going crazy and only working when it want's to. And the reason why I type allot instead of a lot is because that's how it's said where I come from(actually it's said like: uhl-lot). Any questions? And bear with me okay? It's hard to do this, two years with this idea and I didn't really know how to do it. (I'm talking about the new guy, aka: Crazy Goatee Guy). I promise the story will get better now that I have his introduction out of the way. (I had no idea how to give you back-ground info on him, so I just decided the games would be 'real'. Although it makes the story seem kinda cheesy now. If you can, play the games because references **_**will **_**be made, if you cant watch a walkthrough for them on youtube. Or at least get the summary from Wiki.) Leave your feedback so I can un-cheesyify it. This chapter may seem a little random, but it's extremely important. Lastly, the poll is still up, and will be until Friday at noon for people who couldn't vote. Your opinions are what keep me writing.(That and the fact I **_**had **_**to write this down since TC came out.)**

**I can't tell you**

**Annabeth POV**

If you've ever woken up from unconsciousness, let me tell you. It's _not _fun. I woke up on my stomach, sprawled across the floor, like I'd been dragged, I probably had. I had bark tied around my left arm with shoelaces, and my dagger right next to me. A pounding headache was all I could think about for a few minutes until I heard footsteps. I looked up, Percy was walking into the cave. "Well," He said. "glad to see you're okay." I got up.

"What happened?" I groaned.

"You got knocked out." He replied, typically Seaweed Brain.

"Well, another fine answer from the Stating the Obvious department. I meant _after_"

"Well, John told us to get outta there, you got knocked-out, I dragged you to this cave, and…" His voice drifted.

"What?"

"Nothing." He snapped back to reality.

"Where's John?"

"He's…he's dead. I heard fighting, then a yell that wasn't his."

"But…no one was there…"

"I know, but it's weird. It'd stopped for a minute before, right after that wolf howled…then—"

"Wait, a wolf?"

"Ya…what's that got to do wi—"

"Why would he…" My mind was whirring a million miles a second. "he's following us…"

"WHO! GODS YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!"

"Percy, like I said earlier. No one, or only a few people know his name." I said, slightly hurt.

"Well then what's he called?"

"Prince."

"Why?"

"Well…he's the Prince of Persia, what did you think?"

"Isn't that a video game series?"

"Argh!" I groaned " Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Warrior Within and…" _What was the last one? _I thought.

"The Two Thrones."

"Ya, those were all based off parts of his life, he made them himself."

"I thought Ubisoft ma—"

"He _owns _Ubisoft Percy!"

"That's hard to believe."

"Well, it's true."

"Fine then! Why's he following us."

"I don't…" I started, but there was no way I was going to tell him I didn't know.

"Well anyway come help me lug this deer in, I found it a little while ago."

"How do you _find _a dead de—" I started to say, but I saw a movement on my right side, at the cave's mouth. A wolf was sitting there. But once it noticed I saw it, it sprinted away. Something occurred to me. "Percy, how did that deer die?"

"Looked like it got it's throat ripped out, why?"

"Because I think you were _meant _to find it."

"What do you mean?"

"I think we just got some help."

"Help? Annabeth we aren't even five miles from the city! Why would we need food?"

"I'm not sure."

"Maybe we should stay." I looked at him like he'd gone insane.

"Why would we stay?"

"Well, Kronos'll probably have half the country looking for us, and you—we're safe here."

"Why did you say 'you'?"

"Nothing!" he said, getting defensive. "just…uh, a slip of the tongue." Suddenly I wanted to know why he came on this quest.

"Percy, why did you come on this quest?" He looked at me for a second, then outside.

"You needed help."

"Why would I've needed help."

"Uhhh…I dunno." Typical male 'Let's change the subject' phrase.

"Yes, you do."

"I just thought…you'd need help."

"Why would you think I needed help/"

"Because…nothing." He started to walk away, muttering something about protection. I watched the light wash over him as he left the cave and started to the right. I knew he was hiding something from me, and I intended to find out.

————————————

The only thing worse than the fact that we couldn't get a fire to last more than a few seconds, was that a million mosquitos were eating us as we tried. "Ow!" I said as I crushed my thumb between the two flint rocks I had. Percy shot up from the floor, where he'd been sitting.

"Are you okay?"

"Ya! Sheesh Percy, its not like I just got stabbed."

"Let me do it."

"I can do it." He put his hands in the air. At least I think he did, it was pretty hard to see inside this cave at night. I struck the flint again and saw a few sparks land on our small pile of wood. They smoked, then died. _Great, _I thought. _no fire. _

"Gods, if you were any worse with fire, you'd offend Hephestus every time you _attempted._" I heard a voice say from the opening of the cave.

"_Thalia!_" I exclaimed.

"What? I'm gone for maybe two years and you already forget me?"

"What are—how did—_when _did!" I spluttered.

"It looks like you need a place to camp." I looked back at the useless pile of sticks me and Percy had collected earlier.

"Ya…where are the rest of the Hunters? And what are you doing here anyway?" said Percy.

"Oh…Lady Artemis got a…call from a…_friend_."

"Friend?"

"You'll see, come on!" She started to walk away, I jogged after her. I heard Percy grab his bag and start after too. Thalia led us on such a trek, I wondered if she'd been sent after us, instead of stumbling across us, like I'd assumed. After about a mile or two I finally saw their campsite. Wolves circled around a bunch of tents with fires here and there. Thalia brought us to the biggest tent and said. "Lady Artemis wants to speak to you."

"About what?" said Percy, he sounded uncomfortable. I guess because boys aren't allowed.

"I guess we'll find out Seaweed Brain, now wont we." I felt a pang of jealousy, only_ I'm_ allowed to call him that. Thalia opened the flap to the inside of the tent. Inside Lady Artemis was sitting indian-style on a rug, near the back, petting a white-tailed deer. Three wolves sat by the entrance, two on the right, one on the left. Which seemed weird. There was a fire burning in the center of the tent.

"You wished to speak to us Lady Artemis?" I said, she glared at the second of the two wolves guarding the right side.

"For Zeus's sake Prince! They already know you're following them!" The wolf whimpered and started to grow. No…not grow, change. A few seconds later a full grown man in leather armor and a sword sheathed on his back with black, shoulder-length hair, and a scar under his left eye, like a sword cut, was standing before us.

"Sorry Lady, under Chiron's orders to stay undiscovered. But that became harder with that incident at the Dunkin' Donuts when Gunner stole that officer's doughnuts. He chased us halfway down the damn state!" She smiled.

"I told you that wolf has never been right on the head."

"That wolf happens to be the finest wolf I've ever raised."

"He just likes mortal food?"

"Yes…"

"Ma'am, excuse me, but why did you call us here?" said Percy.

"Not a good idea kid." The Prince mumbled to Percy so low I could barely hear it.

"Don't interrupt me again, please Perseus Jackson."

"You're lucky kid, the first—and _only _time I interrupted her, I had to spend the rest of the week as a jackalope." Said the Prince.

"Anyway," Said Artemis. "I _did_ call you here for a reason. The Prince, it seems, had the nerve to call me here. He has something he believes you should have." She looked at me.

"Me?" I said.

"Nope, Grover. He should be here within a few days. Of course you!" The Prince joked.

"Why…me?"

"Because…no _one _person can own this. I don't like it…but I don't use it, and you're smart enough to use it right. You're dagger won't be a match for the battles to come." He bent down, pulled up his right pants leg to reveal a sheath. He un-tied the sheath and got up, holding the dagger inside the sheath. Then he took the dagger out with his right hand. A cold chill entered the tent, the fire grew and the light dimmed. It glowed blue, it's short silver blade reflected the fires light. Sand billowed around inside the handle.

"Is that…what I think it is?" I exclaimed, he nodded.

"The Dagger of Time."

"But I thought you had it destroyed!" I said.

"It returns, just like monsters. It _is _a monster in its own way."

"You want me to have it?"

"Yes, but you must promise me you'll _never _use it for _anything _but fighting."

"I promise."

"Good," He handed me the dagger. I gave him my old one. The Dagger of Time had powers similar to the prince's, it had a button right where the sand was stored. "don't press that." he warned "It's the button that controls the sands."

"Wait," I said. "_the _Sands of time?"

"Yes, I put some in there for you. Six credits, to be exact."

"Credits equal what?"

"Time control. I'm only going to show you how to rewind though, it's the only move you'll need."

"What about slowing time down?"

"You won't need that if Kronos is around."

"True."

"Just press the button, it'll do the rest."

"Okay." I said. "Thanks, but why did you call Lady Artemis?"

"You need food and shelter, you can't leave this place yet. You need to do some more espionage. We need their battle plans, formations, and anything else you can get. Which brings me to my next question. Will you allow it Lady?" He turned to Artemis.

"The loss of my Lieutenant will not serve me well…" she said, Thalia's eyes grew wide. "But the choice is hers. What do you think about staying and helping your friends Thalia?"

"I…I…I don't know…I have allot of work to do…"

"Take your time sister, give me you're answer in the morning. For we cannot stay longer than that." Said Artemis. The Prince looked around, Artemis saw this and sighed. "She is not here Prince."

"I thought she'd be here. She's normally with you."

"Farah has left to Persia, as you undoubtedly knew. She has gone to find…horrible monsters that are stirring." The Prince's eyes grew.

"She can't take those two on by herself!"

"Well she has gone to."

"Well…whether she wants me to or not, I'm going to help her. You don't mess around with those two."

"No. You will stay away from her."

"I'm going to _help _her, not…"

"Fine, but if I hear different…" She left her warning unfinished

"Where did she say she was going first?"

"The Island of Time. Something about an unbeatable blade."

"The Water sword? How many times have I told her, 'It's not the blade, it's the wielder.'?"

"Just go if your going."

"I'll leave in the morning, no sense in leaving this late."

"Alright, back it up." said Percy. "What is going on? You give Annabeth some random dagger, then leave to go find one of Artemis's hunters?"

"That's no random dagger boy. And she's not one of the Hunters, she doesn't need to be."

"Why doesn't she?"

"Artemis's chosen ones are born with the powers of a hunter, regardless of if they choose maidenhood. Although they _are _expected to."

"And the dagger?"

"Controls time."

"O-okay." he said.

"Obviously you didn't want us to know about you, so how would we've gotten the dagger?" I said.

"I would've given it to Lady Artemis. Now if you will all excuse me, I've got a long journey tomorrow and I need sleep. But before I go, I need to speak to Percy." I looked at Percy to get some answers, but he seemed just as confused as me. He followed the Prince out of the tent.

"That Prince is actually okay to be around," said Artemis. "when he's not chasing Farah."

**Percy POV**

Me and Crazy Goatee Guy walking in the woods, creepy. "What did you, uh…need to speak to me about?"

"I can tell Percy."

"Tell what?"

"You'll realize it soon, just make sure you tell her…before you loose you're chance."

"Tell who what?" I said, completely confused.

"Just make sure you don't mess it up, that's how me 'n Farah…came undone. And don't jump to conclusions, it's probably the opposite of what you'll think."

"What are you talking about!"

"You'll find out. But when the time comes, don't be afraid."

"Afraid of what?" He looked at me and a corner of his mouth raised.

"Never mind. I hear you've been having dreams. About Annabeth?"

"Not _about _her!" Gods, he was making it seem like…

"Of course not. Just loosen up the protectiveness, or you _will _regret it, I know I do."

"You mean Annabeth'll hate me for protecting her?"

"There's protection, Percy, then there's _over_protection. Sometimes you'll forget what she can handle herself. Most girls don't like it if your overprotective. Annabeth's defiantly one of them."

"How do you know that?"

"I trained her for a few years, she was one of the best."

"You trained her?" He nodded.

"And Luke. I hear you've never beaten him?"

"No. Do you think you could…"

"There's no time for me to train you. Besides even if there was it would take years."

"How long?"

"Annabeth and Luke barely scraped the top of the stuff I could teach you, and I taught them for three years."

"Wow." I said, not believing how much stuff he could've mastered over the years.

"Yup." I noticed his sword wasn't celestial bronze, how could it kill monsters?"

"How can your sword kill monsters if its made of steel?"

"It's celestial bronze coated in a mixture of iron and steel, blessed by your your dad himself. This sword will kill anything I want it to."

"Cool."

"What do you plan to do with that spare sword you have?" I realized I still had _Mutilator _in it's sheath around my waist.

"I guess I'll chuck it."

"Never do that."

"Why?"

"Give it to someone, if you throw it away an enemy can get ahold of it."

"Fine, I'll give it to someone." _Who? _I thought.

"Good, alright…this is what I needed to talk to you about. Listen closely."

"Listening." I said

"Kronos will do _anything _to get ahead of you. You know that right?"

"Ya."

"Keep an eye on Annabeth after you…you'll see, just keep an eye on her. Kronos will do anything to get to you. If anything happens just snap this in half." He handed me something. It was white, and the size of my fore-finger.

"That's a bone from a wolf, if you snap that, no matter what I can hear it. But you can only do it once, obviously."

"How can you hearing me snap a wolf bone help me?"

"An old shaman gave it to me, it's got a transportation blessing on it. It'll open a portal to you for me. It'll stay open as long as I want it to, so you don't need to worry about snapping it at bad times for me. Use it incase Kronos does something…drastic."

"You said after I do something…what'll I do?" I said, pocketing the wolf bone.

"I can't say anymore or allot of bad stuff will happen, but you'll know what it is when you do it."

"Okay. Hey did you know Aphrodite was at the Burger King." He smiled.

"She does love to check on her projects."

"What project?"

"Like I said, you'll see. Shouldn't be long now. If I was a betting man I'd say two or three days."

"Till what?"

"I've already told you, I can't tell you. Let's turn here, we've been walking awhile. We need to head back."

**Annabeth POV**

"What do you think their talking talking about?" I asked Thalia as she lead me to the tent I'd be staying in. I'd be sharing with her, and The Prince and Percy would share one.

"Why should we care? He obviously didn't want us to know if he and Percy went alone."

"I guess so."

"Listen…tomorrow when everyone leaves we'll drill him for answers, and we won't stop until we know everything."

"You're staying?"

"Yup. I missed you guys. And if you ever tell anyone I said that…" We entered the tent and got into bed. My last thoughts were about Percy.


	14. Answers

**All right guys... and girls. You're probably PO'ed at me but don't hate me. Until further notice, sadly I can rarely get to a computer. So I'll be updating randomly. Now... you've been waiting long enough, here's the next chapter. Characters might be a little OOC while I get re-used to this. And sorry It's not very long, I promise the next one will be at least 1,500 words.  
**

**Answers**

**Annabeth POV**

Sweat slid from my forehead and into my open eye. "Ah!" I blinked, and rubbed it, dropping the tent poles in a heap."Smooth." Percy said over my shoulder.

"Shuddup." I grumbled as I picked them back up.

"Hey, hurry up!" An angry hunter shouted by Artemis's giant sleigh. We were packing up the hunters' camp, me and Percy were carrying the last of the equipment. At first the hunters didn't want Percy's or the Prince's help, but after one of them fell and was almost impaled on a tent spike, (to be saved by Prince.) they didn't mind. We walked over and tossed the equipment into the sleigh.

"Bye hunters," said Prince then turned to Artemis. "before you go can you answer one question for me?"

"What?"

"The last five hunting seasons I haven't even seen a track of anything, then I'm finally about to bag the perfect one, and Chiron interrupts me. Just as I'm about to shoot. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" The Prince asked.

Artemis actually laughed. "Alright, who famined Prince?"

"Sorry milady, Jill dared me to." One of the hunters said.

"So long as it doesn't happen again." said the Prince.

"And with that matter closed, The Rocky Mountains call to us. Time to track the Teumessian Fox!" Said Artemis.

"Heh, good luck. The un-catchable fox? You'll have you're work cut out."

"True. But that's what we do." And with that the hunters left.

"Well, I'd better get going too. Gotta go to the Sea of Monsters... _again._" We said our bye's and good luck's then parted. After about ten minutes of walking Percy said.

"Where are we even going?"

"I don't know, closer to Kronos's ship, I guess." I said.

"_You _don't know? _Again?_ That must be some kind of record for you."

"You're still setting that record every day Percy!"

"Both of you shut up before I crack you're heads together! We're going back to your cave." Thalia said

"Grouch." Percy said.

"What?!"

"Nothing!"

_____________

"Alright, Percy it's time for some answers." I said.

"What?"

"Get up!" said Thalia, he sat up and leaned against the cave wall.

"What?"

"What were you and the Prince talking about last night?" she said.

"I didn't even understand half of it! He just kept saying 'I can't tell you'."

"Why?"

"Why do you even want to know?"

"'Cause we do."

"Well... I can't tell you."

"Nice try."

"Alright he said something about Kronos doing something drastic, and snapping a wolf bone."

"Tell us all of it, Percy!"

"Wait!" I said.

"What." she said

"Percy. Why have you been acting so strange lately?"

**Oh yeah, I'll be doing a story for the Prince's adveanture (hopefully) alongside** **this one**.


	15. The truth comes out Finaly

**There is a poll up on my profile now to see if you want me to do the Prince's quest alongside this story or not, please vote on which you want or suffer the consequences of not getting what you wanted. I found this as the hardest chapter to do because I didn't know what they should say, I ended up writing it three times over because it wasn't (still isn't) that good, but now that it's out of the way it'll be easier.**

**The truth comes out. Finally.**

**Percy POV**

"Well Percy? You gonna answer? Or just stand there?" Thalia said. _Just great,_ I thought, _Caught between a rock and a hard place._ I shifted uncomfortably.

"What do you mean acting weird?" I said. Annabeth crossed her arms and gave me her _yes-you-do-know-what-I'm-talking-about-so-start-explaining-or-I'm-going-to-hurt-you_ look. "Okay, okay. Yes I guess I _have _been acting a little weird lately-"

"A _little?!_"

"Don't push it."

"Just keep going." Annabeth said icily.

"He's too chicken." Thalia taunted. _That's it!_ I started for the mouth of the cave.

"Where are you going?" Annabeth said.

"Fresh air." Was all I said. As I walked out and took a right. I walked for about ten minutes before I found a dry enough log to sit on. It was in the dead center of a small clearing, around ten-by-ten feet. I heard footsteps behind me, whoever it was, they were really clumsy in the woods. I grabbed riptide out of my pocket and prepared to turn around and fight. The footsteps got closer, my left hand tightened around the cap...

**Annabeth POV**

"Ow!" My foot crashed into a tree root. _I can't see a dang thing! _I thought. The leaves of the trees blocked out all the moonlight, I was having more trouble seeing than a blind man in a cole mine. The only thing I could make out was the clearing ahead of me. Percy was sitting on a log. "Hey," I said.

"Here to interrogate me?" He said coldly.

"Look... you don't _have _to answer if you don't want to. I just wanted to know..."

"I just... I guess I should tell you... but it's weird."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... you remember just before we left?"

"Ya you had a dream with Kronos in it."

"And you knew I left something out."

"That's what's been bothering you?"

"The part that I left out... yes."

"What is it?"

"Your going to want to sit down." I sat down next to him.

"Okay... the morning we got the quest... I had a dream... you were unconscious on the cave floor, the night we escaped. You... you were covered in blood, your arm was broken," He pointed at my broken arm. "then the floor gave way and Kronos said he has more control over me than I realize." I was shocked, a little scared even, here was my best friend telling me he saw me half dead in a dream.

"What didn't you tell me?"

"I thought it'd be too awkward. Besides I'd made a promise to myself that it wouldn't happen."

"That's why you've been acting so weird?"

"I guess." We sat there for a few minutes, just thinking.

"We should get back to the cave." I said.

"Ya."

-------------------------

"Wait, wait, wait," Thalia laughed. "You went down to the kitchen, and he was _banging the burner with the pan!?"_

"Did I not say never to speak of this again?" Percy groaned and tossed a few more sticks into the fire_._

"Didn't I say I'd never let you live down that you _sunk our ship!?" _I teased.

"Oh, ya? At least I can _drive _one!" He shot back.

"Do you even know how they work?"

"Yes!" He said in such a bad lie, I think he was joking.

"No you don't."

"You're right." He sighed, leaned back and banged his head off the cave wall. "Ow..." He rubbed the back of his head.

"That's _so _Seaweed Brain." Thalia said, as we all laughed.

"Alright, I'm going to sleep, we have a long day ahead of us." Percy said.

"Ya, 'night." I said and rolled over.

"'Night." I heard Thalia say.

**I know, I know, not 1,500 words like I promised, but I ran out of ideas for this chapter. I was actually thinking of having them play truth of dare. But the next one will be longer, Mainah's honor.**


	16. Flying poodles, really?

**ALLLLLLLLLLLLright, sorry I've taken so long but I was grounded, had a lot of homework, and my dog broke my mom's laptop that she let's me use, so now I'm writing on the desktop. And now my dad has a heart condition that could put him in the hospital for 8 weeks, due to stress level (If he even let's them take him in, he's the only one who's bringing in money, Mom's too sick to work, and I don't even have a worker's permit.) But anyway, I _should _be back to my normal writing style, here's hoping...**

**Recon**

**Annabeth POV**

Percy turned around and made a bunch of hand signals that made absolutely no sense. "What?" I mouthed. He sighed and motioned for me to come over next to him. I crept over and he pointed at the field near the _Princess Andromeda. _

"Look." He whispered. I followed his finger down towards the off ramp for the ship. It was sunny out, and extremely hot, I lost my concentration and had to look back to re-angle my gaze, then I realized what, or _who _he was pointing at. I could see the shape of a guy, about six feet tall, joking around with a couple friends. I couldn't see the one in the middle very clearly, but I knew the two on either side. They were pushing the one in the middle back and fourth laughing loudly. Then he tripped, the ones on the side stopped laughing for a second, then started again as the middle one got up. For a split second I saw his face. It was John.

"I thought you said he was..." Percy nodded.

"I was sure he was, but I never went to find a body. Remember?"

"So he betrayed us?"

"Looks like it." He said coldly. I looked at him, I could understand his anger. But the way his face looked right now, so full of hate towards John... I can't even describe how un-Percy that was. Like... I don't know. I knew I had to calm him down, that much anger is unhealthy. I mean, I wasn't too happy we got stabbed in the back either but Percy was a little _too _angry. I Put a hand on his shoulder, which slackened a little and said.

"Come on, no use getting mad about it. Let's go help Thalia finish making her plan." I got up, dusted my knees off and started off towards the wooded area near the shore. I could hear Percy, angry footsteps and all, fall in behind me.

_______________

"...and _that's_ when we grab hardrive and get the hell outta there!" Thalia concluded. We were standing around a small sand square on the beach, about half a mile from the _Princess Andromeda_. Thalia had a big stick she was using to draw up, and show us, her plan.

"That seems a little overly complicated, and where would we even _get _an army a flying missile-launching poodles? Is there even such thing?" Percy questioned.

"Well... I was joking about that part!" Percy raised an eyebrow.

"And the part with Kronos crying like a baby 'cause he stubbed his toe, too?"

"... well those hurt!" She defended.

"Whatever, I like it... except for the part where I get flung from a catapult, I'd like all of my bones to stay intact."

"But how will you take down the-"

"Thalia," I interrupted. "we've been in there before, I know you like to expect the unexpected, but there's no way they'll have a jet-powered sherman tank."

"Fine, let's just go then."

"How about tomorrow, you're insane plan took all day to describe." Percy said.

"What time is it?"

"Like, 11:45!"

"Wow... Bed time!" She said and started walking towards the cave.

"She sure was acting weird today, wasn't she?" Percy said.

"I think being away from her fellow huters has gone to her head."

"Ya, well I'm gonna need as much rest as possible, especially if all goes according to _her _plan."

"We all will." I agreed.

**Alright, I know it's not verry long, but it's been almost 2 months and I just wanted to get this out before you guys got mad.**


	17. Of Families and Murders

**Hah, got it done two days ahead of schedule. Not as long as my chapters used to be, but I'm working on it. this is only 2,165 words. usually I do an excess of 3,000. But, it's been so long since I've updated, and this seemed like a good place to leave it. Finally, if you like Mass Effect**, **check out my other story Zaeed: 5 men and a cruiser, based off his mission on _'The Varikan'_ the Turian frigate that he was hired to blow up.**

**Percy POV**

I groaned, small rocks and mud stuck to me as I rolled over on the cavern floor. I couldn't get to sleep, worse, I didn't even know why. Anticipation about tomorrow's basically suicide mission, nerves about all the weird stuff that's been happening lately? At this point, I wouldn't bat an eyelash if Luke fell out of the sky, broke through the side of the cave, and blasted us all with an M-16.

All I knew was that I couldn't get to sleep-couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Like, if I went to sleep the world would end and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I gave up and walked out to the mouth of the cave. Leaning on the side I tried to pick out the different constellations stuck up in the night sky. I could almost never remember exactly where half of them were, the only one I always knew where it was-like it or not-was the one of Zoe Nightshade, The Huntress. She gave her life in service to Artemis, to save her. When she died we all began to understand the reality of war and death. Little kids run around with pretend guns, making believe they're soldiers or Marines or whatever. They shoot at eachother and have fun and never even realize that in real life, if you get shot, chances are you're not getting back up. I thought about the sacrifice she made, the sacrifices that members of militaries across the world make, dying and killing for the people of their countries. When the time came-if indeed this was the choice I had to make-could I do it? Could I just end my life, even for a just cause like killing off Kronos? I wanted so bad to say I could, to live the quote 'My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country.' But the truth? I didn't know.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't even notice Thalia standing next to me, hands in her jacket pockets and a sullen look on her face. She broke the silence first. "Got insomnia too?" The sudden noise-and realization I wasn't alone-made me jump ten feet in the air.

"Something like that, you?" I said

"Something like that..." she trailed off and gazed blankly at the stars.

"You miss you fellow hunters?" I asked, more of a statement than a question.

"That obvious?" She said after a few minutes.

"Subtle as a cat in a dog show."

"It's not like I didn't miss you guys, but... I don't know, they're like the family I never realy had."

"What about Annabeth and-" She cut me off, knowing where I was going.

"It didn't last remember? I had a mom to you know. She wasn't family, I ran away. Annabeth and... Luke-they were like family sure but... It didn't last, we're not a family anymore." She was starting to talk faster, like she was afraid someone would stop her. "Artemis and he Hunters? They're like the three of us were, except we'll be one big family forever- ya know? I don't know, it's like you missing your mom when you go out on a quest and don't know if you'll ever see her again." I realized her point, I never really thought about it, but I didn't know what I'd do without my mom. Press myself past my limits and whined up dead probably.

"I know what you mean." I said.

"Yeah..." We just stared out at the night sky for awhile, finally I thought of something to say.

"So... could you do it?"

"Elaborate, Seaweed Brain."

"Right," I pointed at Zoe's constellation. "could you just sacrifice yourself save the world, or just anybody?"

"The world? Probably, I guess spur of the moment I wouldn't even realize that I did it 'till I was arguing with Charon about the ferry ride."

"How can you just say it, don't you realize it'd all be over then? The Hunters, your friends, the ability to speak clearly..." The corner of her mouth went up at that last one.

"I can't, I'm just saying. It's how I am, it's how we all are, we can't just say we'd give our lives. No one _intends_ on giving their live, it just happens. I know, based on my values and personality that I probably wouldn't even hesitate. You asking for a reason Percy?"

"Just wondering." I said.

"Well don't," She said. "I know you'd do the right thing."

"How do you know when even _I_ don't?" I questioned.

"How many times have people said we're alike?" And with than she walked back into the cave. A few minutes later I followed suit and managed to get to sleep. And had the worst dream I've ever had, and that's saying something.

**Dream Start**

_I was standing in darkness, screams and moans filled my ears as fog hung around my feet. The underworld. It was then I realized I wasn't alone, standing thirty feet in front of me was Kronos. Another figure, head and shoulders taller than King Titan himself stood next to him, looking out at Tartarus. "This man, this _variable _do we truly need to release him?" said Kronos in a near-whisper. _

_"He must fight, that is all I know. If he does not, the war stands at a stalemate until Typhon is defeated." He turned his head to his boss. "We both know what happens then. Besides the point, do you want to risk the gods getting their greasy paws on him?"_

_"No, but he'll be as distrustful to us as he is to the gods. We betrayed he too."_

_"I'm sure he is nothing you can't handle."_

_"Yes, but the risks involved. There is a reason he was magically chained to the very bottom of Tartarus. And we both know why."_

_"Still, the future has spoken. If he does not fight Typhon falls."_

_"Typhon falling would be a tragic loss indeed, but it wouldn't guarantee our loss. I still have many tricks up my reformed sleeves."_

_"Are you frightened, lord?" Asked the mysterious man tentatively. Suddenly he fell to his knees, yelping in pain like a wounded dog._

_"To coin a phrase, 'I find your lack of faith disturbing.' Do you truly believe I would be afraid of a mere mortal?"_

_"A mortal who was once a god-who killed gods-who escaped the underworld and Hades himself three times! Such caution is understandable milord." The man shrieked._

_"Cautious...yes...I do believe that is the word you meant, isn't it, Prometheus."_

_"Y-y-y-yes mi-milord, why should you fear anything?" Kronos nodded apparently satisfied with the lesson being taught.  
_

_"They should be back with him shortly, you can suffer for you insolence for as long as it takes." Prometheus continued to shriek in pain and cry out apologies for the next few minutes until thumping footsteps and clinking chains could be heard approaching from the pit. Prometheus just stopped and got up, shaking himself off._

_"He's here..." Kronos whispered. Four lastrygonians, each holding a large chain connected to an average size man in the center, reached the top of the pit and stood there._

_In a voice, quiet but angry and gruff, the man in the middle said. "What do _you _want?"_

_"Ah, the Ghost of Sparta, how I've waited for this day. Please, come forward, into the light." Kronos taunted. "No? You don't wan't to?" He seized a chain from on of the lastrygonians and jerked it. Pulling the man forward, into the torchlight. He wore no clothes, apart from ancient Greek sandals and what looked suspiciously like half a red checkered kilt (it only covered one leg). A large scar cut across his stomach, like he'd been impaled with a giant sword. A blood red tattoo__, inked into snow-white skin,__ started at his eye, and curved around his torso, getting thicker the further down it went. He was bald, except for a pitch black goatee sticking out of his chin. Kronos reached forward and patted his shoulder. "My, my... still stuck with the same curse. Still having bad dreams? Surely the gods have granted you _that _mercy?" The man let loose a savage roar and pulled at his chains, the lastrygonians lost their footing, but not their hold, he stayed put. "You can't break these chains, Spartan, magically reinforced, just for you." The man just snarled. "You hate the dreams don't you? Hate your punishment-your torture?" The man stopped growling at this. "Join me, fight for me against the gods, you will have your revenge promised millenia ago-and, I shall even remove your curse." The man stopped shaking, he stood there, rooted to the spot, head down._

_"Last time I trusted the Titans, I wound up betrayed, dead and revengeless." he spoke._

_"Ah, but you escaped the underword and even killed Hades on your way out. The gods leave you locked up here, at the bottem of Tartarus with only bugs and darkness for company. They fear you, they know your capabilities, your lust for revenge. Join me, and you will have these desires fulfilled."_

_"Very well Kronos, but this time," He looked him square in the eyes, at the end of his chains. "If you betray me, it won't be just the gods that have to worry."_

**Dream End**_  
_

"Hey get up, sleeperfish!" Thalia said as she lightly kicked my side. "Breakfast then a suicide mission, remember?"

"Yeah, if it wasn't before, it is now." She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"Listen to this..."

.

* * *

.

"Do you know who it was?" I asked, hoping the man's abilities were being exaggerated.

"He does sound familiar, a red stripe tattoo over his eye... I can't think of who he is at the moment, does ring a bell though..." Annabeth thought aloud.

"Never heard of him." said Thalia bluntly.

"Also, Prometheus was there too. He's on the Titan's side." I said.

"This... is very bad..." Annabeth said glumly.

"So what do we do?"

"We can't do anything. In the first war, the only reason Prometheus sided with the gods was because he knew they'd win. This doesn't bode well."

"But he said the future wasn't all that clear right? So that means we still have a chance!"

"A chance is a _chance _Percy, not a guarantee, or even assurance." Groaned Thalia. Annabeth let loose a large sigh and mumbled.

"I just wanna know who this mystery man is. Apparently he's their ace in the hole. And if he's killed gods and escaped from the underworld, he _has _to be a half-blood. No one else would be able to fight through the mist."

"What did he mean 'kill gods' anyway? Gods are immortal, right? Apart from fading, that is." I mused.

"Not literally killed. No, dispelled like monsters? Yes. If you're strong and skilled enought to defeat a god in battle. They need time to reform, like monsters, only a lot slower. Usually minor gods or important half-bloods are elected as temporary replacements."

"What about the person who killed the god?"

"If it was for the right reason, a reward maybe. Just because they can? Death and eternal torture at the hands of the furies themselves."

"Oh, that's good to know. WE'VE GOT A GOD-KILLER ON THE TITANS SIDE!" I screamed to on one in particular, putting my hands on my face.

"But who..." Annabeth wondered. "There have been many gods killed throughout history. None of them would be good to fight against... But some worse that others... I just wish I knew..." With that thought we finished breakfast and began preperations for our assault on the _Princess Andromeda_.


	18. HIATUS OVER!

**Alright, before you guys get your hopes up, I need to tell you something. I havent forgotten about this fic, and I DO intend to finish it. BUT, before I go any further into this story, the companion story, which goes with this fic needs to be uploaded. It's not going to be long, 7-12 chapters at the most, but the plot is very integral to the story of "Are you in, or out" and so I've uploaded this A/N to tell you that the companion story is entitled "The Complications of Time" and the first chapter is up. Don't feel like you NEED to read it, but it would definatly help you make sense of later events in what I'm planning to be a trilogy for this fic.**


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